Eric Johnson and IHOP

We got some great seats. Later, we were asked to order another ticket. Several minutes later, the recipient no longer wanted it. A friend did. Within two hours before the concert, neither could be located. The stars aligned for a musician friend of mine, whose band had to take the night off.

The stage was all set. Any serious lunatic guitar-playing fan could tell by looking, whose equipment this was.

Please excuse the picture quality. When I purchased my latest phone, I did quite an amount of research. The camera seemed to be a real standout feature, with all sorts of photographers lauding the quality and manual operation mode. This escapes me, but the phone really performed, so I bought it. Teased my wife that I had more megapixels than her. And my pictures look like crap. I don't necessarily blame the camera, but if it's truly that great, it should produce better pictures on automatic mode. I blame myself. Now I need to get someone to teach me how to use manual mode. We had great seats, so it confuses me why my pictures always look so far away.

Eric Johnson does things his own way. Very differently.
He has an ear for tone that's unrivaled.  There are all sorts of stories about his quest for tone, but who knows if they're true. Things like being able to hear the difference between battery types and voltage in effects pedals. Preferring different cords.

We boring old guitar players typically use one amp and a bunch of pedals to get different sounds. Eric uses three separate pairs of amps to produce his three signature tones, plus pedals. It must be petty LOUD up there. The large black head to the right of the stacked Fenders appears to be his Two Rock signature head.

None of the alleged tonal weirdness has anything to do with his playing, which is in a league by itself.  For me, Eric exists in a league of two, with Allen Holdsworth (RIP).  I love the tones and playing, but even sitting right in front of them, it's ridiculously difficult to figure out what they're doing. By comparison, Eric is a more traditional player, but this is not all that helpful if you're trying to learn something. His chord shapes and added tones are played all over the place, in non-traditional ways. He plays for the melody, regardless of how difficult it is. The fact that he can sing while doing this is unbelievable.

The Show

The opening act's name was Ariel. I figured she had to have some courage, opening for this headliner, especially with just a guitar.

She's this pint-size Austinian, like Eric. First song was jazzy and well played. Her voice leaps out and is not what you think you'd hear... very strong. She went through her set, alternating guitars and piano (ok a synth inside a piano shell), telling stories and engaging the crowd. She did some great stuff with a box called a looper, which allowed her to sound like she was playing with a band. I've been thinking of getting one, and this threw me over the edge.

At the end of her set, she introduced Tommy Taylor and Kyle Brock, the drummer and bassist for Mr. Johnson. Then Eric came out and did his thing, to a very appreciative audience.

Eric Johnson, Keswick Theater 3/3/18

It killed me that the Keswick Theater was half full. This man is a national treasure and has won Grammy awards. The people who were there were a very interesting mix. They tended toward the 40s and up, but there were a lot of women, which is odd for instrumental guitar. When musicians and non-musicians agree, that is some powerful music. My wife was clapping and screaming and having a great time. Someone even complained (heh heh).

There were some great tunes played. After an intermission, they played his album Ah Via Musicom in its entirety. Kyle and Tommy were absolutely on point. Tommy was stellar and solid on the drums. Kyle held down the bottom and middle very well. Then the moment came when we heard that phrase you hear at every concert: I'm going to play you a song by Led Zeppelin. Heads ratcheted up. He performed Black Mountain Side, an acoustic song. Due to a sharp camera'd person, this is what it looked like.



BLASPHEMY
Here's the part that could get me in trouble.
Eric's lead tone is legendary. It sings. Unfortunately it failed to translate well through the P.A. system. The overall sound was clean, but this one thing bothered me.

Because famous people by the boatload read ThermionicEmissions, perhaps Eric Johnson does too. I hope this will help.

You're probably asking yourself how I can type that with a straight face. I have no idea either.

Here's something you won't read elsewhere..... you might not want to read it, which might be why you won't read it elsewhere.  What the artist wants to sound like is relatively easy to achieve in the studio, where most of the variables can be controlled. It's more difficult onstage, even after extensive soundchecking (good luck with that if you're an opening act). So it sounds as best as it can onstage.  Unfortunately, it's going to sound different to the audience. There are so many variables and difficulties between the amp and the ears of the audience. A few are they type and position of the microphones, the quality of the sound system, the abilities of the soundman, the position of the seats, the air in the room, and the price paid for the tickets. Ok, maybe not.

It's a great idea to get offstage during soundcheck and listen from the audience's perspective. This tells you how your sound is coming across. If you don't like it, make the necessary changes.

So for whatever reason, the killer lead tone wasn't making it out in a pleasant and representative way. It was definitely audible, but needed some help.  So here I am, bitching about one of the tones from one of the foremost tonemeisters on the planet. My foot: when I'm not shooting myself in it, it's in my mouth. Ariel came out for a few songs and augmented the band. She traded licks with Eric, which is enough to cause most guitar players to wet their pants. And she did well.

That technical diversion aside, it was a great concert. I highly recommend his music to everyone. Ah Via Musicom is a great place to start.  Cliffs of Dover is his most popular tune, which you might recognize.

One out of left field was the cover of the Beatles' The Night Before. Never would have called that one. YouTube has a few of his concerts and a lot of live material.

IHOP

After the concert, our Masses decided they were very hungry and IHOP was going to be the destination. There aren't a lot of them around... one is pretty close and one pretty far. We generally go to the farther one because of experiences we've had at the closer one.  I'm a white boy. A very white boy. Most of my body has never seen the sun.  Late at night, the local IHOP becomes full of nasty, obnoxious black people. Last time there, I was a target of their verbal hostilities. This was not one table - it was many. I had to leave. This has not happened at any other restaurant at any point in my life.

We figured maybe it was time to try again. Because I like pain.
This time it was not nasty, obnoxious people. This time it was the staff.

We got sat immediately. And did not see a waitress for about 20 minutes. We watched people who came in behind us eating. Eventually a young lady popped by to take drink orders (because food orders are most strenuous and must be approached with time and patience). She made this process run very quickly, even repeating our drink orders. Then she disappeared again, to that place wait staff goes when they leave your table. Perhaps it's a time warp or alternate dimension. Maybe a visit with friendly aliens, who knows.

My wife is traditionally a very patient person. Let's face it - she'd have to be to live with me.  But she was getting ticked off as she watched people who came in later than us paying their checks.

Another long period of time passed until our Missing In Action waitress reappeared, as if by magic. She said she was getting our drinks immediately, then asked what we ordered because she didn't write it down. Didn't write it down. Wife wanted to know isn't that the first thing they teach you in Waitress School? Write it down? But she did take our order, which was a positive thing.

Then she went back to the Waitress Zone<tm>.
15 minutes later, the drinks arrived. Not the food.
15 minutes later, a small plate of pancakes arrived, because they were hot and she wanted to bring them out. No, the other plates in the order did not show up, but the side pancakes were hot. And no, my order was nowhere to be found.
And would I like a drink refill of the drink I had finished ten minutes ago.

Eventually the rest of the food showed up. There was loud applause and halleleujahs all around. I thought I heard a Mexican band somewhere, but I couldn't see them. I didn't  want to ask about my drink refill, because it would not arrive til after we left the restaurant, and I didn't trust her to run after my car.

As usual, I want to be honest about everything. The food was good, in spite of the fact that they had to go to a different IHOP to procure it. They have a new Turkey Bacon Avocado wrap. I asked for it without avocado, whereafter she told me they didn't have any avocado. I really tried my best not to do anything rude, like asking her if they hired only warm bodies. The turkey and the bacon were good, although didn't appear in the same quantity as the picture. The avocado they didn't have was spectacular in the way it didn't make my sandwich inedible. At least an hour and a half later, we made it out of the place. Fortunately my car did not take 20 minutes to start and the lights did not take 20 minutes to change.