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Off to see Geoff Tate

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Spudman

Spudman

Luke Skyrawker
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Dec 22, 2005
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Idaho (I-duh-ho)
Tomorrow the whole gang (Mrs. Spud, baby Spud and myself are off to spend the evening with Geoff Tate (Queensryche). We have passes to hang out with him and the band so baby Spud will get to meet her first rock star (other than me). I just hope she doesn't decide that she needs a Geoff Tate tattoo.:eek:

Geoff is promoting his solo album with a cast of great musicians including Pamela Moore who you would recognize as Sister Mary from the Queensryche Mindcrime tours.

http://www.geofftate.com/
 
I just remember doing what they told me . . . told me . . . told me.

Sounds sweet, Spud! If they'd ever come on tour within tactical nuclear missile range of this place I'd see them in a heartbeat, especially when they were doing the full original Mindcrime. Best . . . album . . . ever.
 
Mrs Spud had this picture enlarged and printed to get Geoff to sign. This is from another time we hung out with them.
ryche067.jpg
 
Gig Report

We had a ball on the trip.

I stopped in to two music stores in Boise. The first one was a huge piano store that had a lot of quality equipment, guitars, etc. I checked out some Taylor and Crafter acoustics but Little Spud discovered the Roland electronic drum kit with headphones attached and she went to town on that. I just hope she doesn't want to become a drummer with an acoustic set.:thwap:

Next we went to the Old Boise Guitar Company where Mike Stone from Queensryche had bought his Gretsch guitar I posted about on the Queensryche thread. Very nice stuff in that store. I played a sweet 58 Les Paul with a chunky neck. Very nice but not worth the price to me. I did fall in love with a Tradition they had on consignment and it was prettier, sounded better to me and was 1/7th the price of the Les Paul. Looks like I'm off on another guitar hunt now.;)

The first band up was called Defenders Of The Faith a Judas Priest tribute band that was badly dressed and more interested in drinking than playing. They did nothing for me but since they were a local band they had a big crowd. I'm amazed at what great support bad bands get. Why is that? Even little Spud was disgusted.

Geoff Tate's band came on after a very quick band change. Neither guitarist had an amph. They both used in ear monitors and Digitech GSP 1101's running direct to the console. The bass player was direct as well. Scott Rockenfield brought his small drum kit from home and the keyboardist had 3 keyboards and a laptop and Scott had a laptop too. Everything was midi synced and all the in ear monitors had a click count at the beginning of every song. Scott used headphones all night. The sound was fabulous.

The hot guitar player was Geoff's daughter's boyfriend Parker Lundgren . Really a nice guy and very young. He played mostly a Gibson SG in black that sounded awesome...until he plugged in his vintage cherry 335 Gibson and WOW! What an amazing thick sound. The SG was very versatile. Sparkling cleans and roaring and crunchy heavy tones but the 335 was in a whole other league.

The coolest story is Joe Mulkern's, the other guitarist. You can read his story here. He fits thefret demographic of being a guitarist, putting the guitar away for many years and then coming back to playing in his 40s...except he got a break that we all dream about. Joe is a super nice guy and is in a blues band. His main amph is a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe that he got from Jay at Emerald City Guitars in Seattle. He doesn't use any pedals and I forgot to ask if the amp has been modified. I gave Joe the address to our forum so maybe he'll chime in more on this at some point. Most of the night Joe played a black Fender Strat and a vintage Ibanez Artist.

After the show only 8 of the 23 people that were listed as having Meet and Greet passes showed up so we got to spend plenty of quality time with all 8 members of the band. We finally got to meet and take pictures with Scott Rockenfield the drummer. He's always eluded us in the past. Kelly Gray who was a member of Queensryche for the Q2K album and tour was acting stage manager and mentioned that his band with Scott Rockenfield (Slave To The System) will be releasing their second album in November. Pamela Moore who plays Sister Mary on the Mindcrime I and II albums, DVDs and tours was also doing backup singing along with Jason Ames who has an incredible voice.

Great show - great experience. Geoff is very sincere about his music and one of the all time best front men ever in rock music. It was a real treat to spend the evening with him and his talented group.

Scott Rockenfield

GeoffTateBand2008003.jpg

Geoff Tate
GeoffTateBand2008007.jpg

Joe Mulkern
GeoffTateBand2008008.jpg

Parker Lundgren
GeoffTateBand2008011.jpg
 
Hey, those are awesome pics and it looks like it was a great show. Did Geoff serve any of his wine he is working on? I am glad you guys had a great time. It is excellent that Miranda gets to join you on these cool rock and roll events. Do you bring earplugs for her, in case it gets loud?
 
I am incredibly jealous. Looks like the whole family had a good time.

I gotta move to Idaho. No one good comes down here anymore.
 
We did take ear plugs for all of us. It really wasn't too bad actually. Miranda kept hers in the whole time because she has sensitive little ears. She even tries to get me to turn down around the house...but I don't.

Geoff had some wine during the show but I'm not sure if it was his Insania brand or not.

The band was super tight and I heard only one mistake all night. Pretty good for a band that was thrown together. We got a first class show from them. It was 90 non stop minutes with a tiny bit of spoken intro to a few songs. They also did some nice twists to a couple of Queensryche songs. "Hand On Heart" and "Disconnected" were a little different than the Queensryche version but "Silent Lucidity" was pretty much unchanged.

His solo album is a nice listen and has plenty of good heart felt messages but the material really shone as it was presented live.
 
Hey Spuman!

Thanks for coming to the show. It was a blast playing for everyone. You have a sharp eye for gear. You called out the Ibanez, which I don't remember mentioning.

I used four guitars for the gig. A Les Paul Studio tuned to drop C. The vintage Ibanez tuned 1/2 step down from A440. The MIM strat tuned to A440 and the MIM Tele tuned drop D A440.

The music was fun to play. Overall, it was a chance of a lifetime and I took it!

Now it's back to the blues...

Thanks again for coming to the show. It was a pleasure meeting you.
 
Hey Welcome Average Joe! Nice to have you join us. We have a good mix of guitarheads here in this friendly place and hope you enjoy it. Please feel free to do an intro post over in the The Fret Players forum under The Lounge heading.
 
At any point do you ever ask, "Whats up with the Bo-tox man?"

Dont get me wrong, Im a huge Ryche fan from the 80s...but why does a MALE middle aged rockstar need lips like Brad Pitts wife???

Im sorry, I dont mean to rain on your parade, looks like a really fun time...Im just sayin
 
Average Joe said:
Hey Spuman!

Thanks for coming to the show. It was a blast playing for everyone. You have a sharp eye for gear. You called out the Ibanez, which I don't remember mentioning.

I used four guitars for the gig. A Les Paul Studio tuned to drop C. The vintage Ibanez tuned 1/2 step down from A440. The MIM strat tuned to A440 and the MIM Tele tuned drop D A440.

The music was fun to play. Overall, it was a chance of a lifetime and I took it!

Now it's back to the blues...

Thanks again for coming to the show. It was a pleasure meeting you.
Click to expand...

Thanks for checking out thefret Joe.
I had an Ibanez Artist from 1978 that was stolen many years ago while I was on tour. I'm always keen to spot them becaue I loved mine.

I can't tell you how much we enjoyed the show and meeting you and getting to spend the time after the show with you as well. Truly a great memory. Geoff is a God in our house (for the Mrs). I just appreciate talented artists and good guitarists.;)

Maybe you might like to share with us what is was like rehearsing and learning the material for the gig. It seems that Geoff's music is quite different from what you usually play.
 
What can I say about the opportunity? I wanted to say yes right away, but needed to talk it over with my wife and make sure she was onboard with the idea. Once we decided that it wouldn't impact the family and my job, I decided to take the gig.

Practicing and rehearsing:
I was asked to focus on the solo material first. I had that material down in about three days. Then I went after the QR songs…not so easy. I did the once over on all of them and then worked on the ones that were most difficult or intricate to get the phrasings as close to the record as possible. I was given the CDs and had to learn everything by ear. I the best tool I have found was the Guitar Rig Session I/O device. It allowed me to slow parts of the songs down to get the exact phrasing without changing the pitch. It also has a metronome built in so I could get the timing right as well.

Practice was early mornings [4:30am to 6:30am] Monday to Friday and 4:30am to whenever on Weekends. My job was to learn all the solo songs and a third of the QR songs prior to the first rehearsal. I had a week and a half to do this.

Rehearsal: Monday to Friday 7:00PM to 11:30PM or later. We went through each song three or four times fine tuning the arrangements. Red bull became my friend. Sleep was a luxury. I was living the dream. It was fun, scary, tiring, hectic, exciting, and I wouldn’t have changed a thing.
 
Wow, AJ, there ya go. You laid it all out there. If any of us "average joes" want to take it to the next level to gig locally, open mic, or whatever "it" is for any of us, it takes dedication to get the job done. From what I read in your posts, you made sure it was something you wanted to do, checked it out and cleared it with your family, then made choices and followed through to get it done. For you, that meant getting up really early, and staying up late, so you could practice enough to get it done. Goes to show that it (whatever it is for any one of us) can be done if you make the choices it takes and follow through.

Thanks for posting. It is good for me anyway to hear about the work that went into your taking advantage of that opportunity.
 
Thanks for all the info Joe. I'm sure it was a challenge to pack all that into a day. It's great to hear the process for you because Mike Stone told me some of what his experience was like too when they flew him to Alaska.

I remember losing a guitarist in the 80's and then once we had a replacement working up a 45 song set list in one week. Some of the material was new to the already current members and it was a challenge to get that learned. I can only imagine what the new guy was going through with mostly 45 new tunes to learn.

That Queensryche stuff is hard to pick apart because of the way they voice the chords. I thought you did a great job.
 
The QR stuff is a bit challenging. I found a tool called Guitar Pro that works well. I searched for QR tabs and downloaded the GP versions of the songs I needed. Unfortunately, only two of the songs I needed to learn were up there. I had to learn them the old fashioned way.

I’m looking into getting a new amp/cab setup. I went to the QR show in Lewiston, ID last weekend and talked to Mike Stone about his setup. He has his GSP1101 going out to two Fuchs amp/cabs. One of the cab is set out to his left in front of him so he can get feedback and sustain. Now I want a setup like that…time to get some gigs to pay for gear.


Got to run. I'll be checking in for time to time.
 
Glad you stopped by Joe.

Michael W did something similar one time that I saw him. He had a 2x12 (it looked like) pointed at him from the front too. At that time Mike S was using a 4x12 pointed across the stage right next to him.

I like that idea but it really only works if someone is at FOH. It sure makes the engineer's job easier not to have to compete with stage volume though.

So is everyone on the GSP1101 bandwagon these days? Will we be seeing new ads with QR as Digitech sponsored artists? Are you now too?
 
I have to admit. the GSP1101 gives you all the tools you need to get the job done. I have a separate pedal board that has a Boss chorus , acoustic simulator, and tuner. A Dunlop cry baby and Ibanez tube screamer. I don't need those now. The unit is great for a "throw and go" kind of deal. So..yeah...I'm hooked.
 
Robert said:
Interesting... so that GSP1101 sounds great straight into a clean tube amp? Or is it working better with a solid state amp? I am getting curious about this unit.
Click to expand...

It sounds great running it straight into the PA system - direct. If you want to hear it into 2 tube amphs then check out the link and related ones. He's a Digitech rep and is using the GSP1101 in all his demos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUb9wHA9qwU
 

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