-
Well.... for those of you that attended the gig last night, it was good seeing you. DSOP.. it was nice making your acquaintance finally. We'll have to get together sometime.
Drum4fun, Chooch, Pocketplayer, Shedder, CBrady, Drumming sort of person, drumaddict, et al (I know I'm fogetting names). It was a pleasure as always. Danny, T-Bo, Zak, Derek, Steve ... we missed you.
It was soooooo nice to see Vinnie playing in L.A. again after a several year drought of having this man grace our presence.
You can tell Vince was reading his ass off playing the tunes. They needed a couple more rehersals to have nailed it. But I know that Vince couldn't hear shit either, so that made it doubly difficult. They played tunes off of Waldmans CD's mostly. There was still the insane "blowing" that Vinnie is well known for......... I was in a transe trying to soak up/in the vocabulary/phrasing he was laying out for others to consume. To me, it's not "blowing", rather, the guys just plain talks to me when he's doing that stuff. He was playing a Gretch hip-gig kit that had a shallow B.D. mounted tom and a 14" floor (I think??). Amazingly enough, the drums sounded really great!! 20 or 18" kick and the floor tom sounded like a cannon!! But all in all, it felt like home again (to me) to have Vinnie playing in L.A., in such an intimate setting for all to enjoy his musical emotions. Plus $6 was the cheapest I've ever spent to see him play!! LOL!!
CBrady... you should have stuck around after the gig. Me, Vince, Makoto, and Mark Morales of Kaman Music Corp (Gibralter, Gretch, Toca) all had dinner together at the club. We had a great time conversing for around 3 hours talking about so many different topics. You would have loved the conversations. And Mark.... it was nice meeting you. You're a huge plus to the drumming community at large. Nice to know guys like you are out there on the business end of things for us drummies!!
One word that would best describe Vince is "passion". This man has a veracious appitite for knowledge about everything he does or enjoys. From politics, to drumming, to recording, he just a really well read guy and an amazing orator.
Randy came to the table at one point and Vince said something like, "well... at least we made it to the koda!!". Randy said something to the effect of, "with more rehersals, it'll get tighter". So I think that may mean there will be more local Waldman/Vinnie gigs to come.
I'm assuming Vince hasn't been playing in town so much because of the issues he has with people that record video/audio of the gigs. I can't say I blame the dude for his feelings, especially to the people that make money off selling the bootlegs. But I hope this means he will be playing more again in intimate settings like this one last night. I really miss those Baked Potato gigs where I could almost touch his ride cymbal and just watch him play while daydreaming. To me.... that's where I soak up his musicality.
Till the next time guys!!
John
-
John, thanks again for the heads up! Who was playing bass?
-
I'm sooo bad with names. Can anyone help out?? Who was the bass and guitar player??
-
I've seen Vinnie in a small setting about 12 or 13 years ago with some not nearly as big names playing with him. He brings the best out of anyone he plays with.
Too bad I couldn't be there.......maybe one of these days I can stay out late on a school night.
-
I'm glad you guys had a great time. It's always great watching Vinnie play live, even if it's not perfect.
Post more reviews folks!
Danny
-
I've 'heard' there will be more shows, but won't be announced, they will just 'happen'. Got this from a reliable source.
-
Wha.....
Where was this? How do you find out about the next Vinnie/Waldman gigs in LA????
-
I know of a few coming up.
-
That was a great show last night and it was really cool meeting you guys. I hope this band plays again soon.
-
Ditto on the review. I moved and sat on the stairs closest to Vinnie--he was to my right about three feet. I sat parallel with his throne and I agree, you really couldn't hear the bass and guitar much. I kept that in mind when he was vamping.
The bass player was young--not a name cat like the others. Guitar...hmmm, should know his name. He looked Latin. Phil Upchurch was there (I kept kicking him before I moved the stairs...sorry Phil) and Neil Stubenhaus...I'm sure there were others.
Sorry I missed dinner...had to boot out right afterwards. Nice meeting the "Asian Drum Connection" and Druns4Fun, as well as DSOP and his gorgeous gf. Joe's Mech is a natural for getting the inside connection with players.
I thought Vinnie's floor tom was amazing. His white coated heads gave it such a deep, warm sound. I loved the angle I had of Vinnie, right to Randy's piano and seeing Randy give the visual hand cues to Vinnie--keep the volume low or to gesture a specific command.
I was most impressed with Vinnie reading charts all night on every tune. That music was complex to say the least. Every time I see him he has a way of being above the music, as though he's looking down from above with minimal effort.
It was very interesting to compare the Gadd clinic with Vinnie's playing. Vinnie hits my mind more than my heart. Gadd has a grip on the heart for me. Sometimes I get tired of all the fast notes and licks...they all sort of blend together after time. I feel the same sort of way seeing Virgil...a blur of notes all crammed together with technical amazement. Just my opinion here.
This was a pro's pro gig of players and the Tangier room was very cool!
