The Amazing Eric Johnson Concert Review

[70strathead]

Band Sound/Mix:
One of the best mixes I've heard in years. It was near perfection and depending on where u stood, it was perfect.

Tunes:

Old Selection of Tones, ah via stuff, Venus Isle stuff..of course some hendrix in encore.

Tones:

Simply Wonderful. Eric was using two silver face fender amps for cleans, an old 50W small box plexi and i believe another plexi behind his full stack. He had all the old school stuff on the pedal board, echo plex, fuzz face, Chandler tube driver, etc.

Performance:

The best I've seen in about 10 years, His chops were on fire but he played with so much soul and at one point during during "When the Sun meets the sky", it felt he was aligned with the universe..really heavy stuff, in the zone!!

Guitars:

He play a powder blue and red rosewood signature series strat and busted out a vintage 60's sunburst for the Hendrix Encore tunes.

killler!

 

[maiden_fan]

I have always wanted to get into eric johnson, but I never know which cd's to pickup. Any recommendations?

 

[Rob Tahan]

Man i love Eric Johnson. Just a reminder of how awesome he is. Best i saw him was on the Venus Isle tour. It was a near religious experience. Never before have i gotten feeling watching someone in concert. It almost seems as though lately hes kinda chilled out on his chops, but its great to hear that he's doing it again. I was really starting to get dissapointed.

- Albums recommended would be Ah via musicom (it has Cliffs of Dover)
-My favorite though is Venus Isle. Lonely in the nights guitar solo is AMAZING!!!

 

[dstroud]

Awesome man, it's very cool to see an awesome player when the sound guys get it right - doesn't get much better than that!

 

[badger71]

I saw him open up for Satch a few years back at Humphrey's. There were some issues with the PA and you could tell it was bugging him. I'd like to see him again because I know it would be a better experience.

 

[70strathead]

Sounds like an awesome show except for the Hendrix encores, enough already

yeah but the cool thing about the way Eric Approach's Hendrix is just about as good as it gets ( genuinely speaking) and he always picks the more sensitive/obscure Hendrix tunes that are not over done..in this case, Axis:Bold as Love and Are you Experienced...he even managed to recreate the backwards guitar stuff on AYE with doing these volume knob type swells, ..pretty sick.

 

[70strathead]

I saw him open up for Satch a few years back at Humphrey's. There were some issues with the PA and you could tell it was bugging him. I'd like to see him again because I know it would be a better experience.

Yeah i was there too, I'm not a Humphrey's fan a all. fricken yacht club scene. His sound at HOB was as good as it gets, seriously. I forgot to mention for you Def leppard fans, Phil Collen was a couple seats down from me with his mouth dropped most of the time.

 

[gtrplr71]

He is incredible saw him last april at a small benifit here in Austin Maybe 150 people and good old Red Volkhart show up played before and with him great player!

 

[muudrock]

Man i love Eric Johnson. Just a reminder of how awesome he is. Best i saw him was on the Venus Isle tour. It was a near religious experience. Never before have i gotten feeling watching someone in concert. It almost seems as though lately hes kinda chilled out on his chops, but its great to hear that he's doing it again. I was really starting to get dissapointed.

- Albums recommended would be Ah via musicom (it has Cliffs of Dover)
-My favorite though is Venus Isle. Lonely in the nights guitar solo is AMAZING!!!

+10 on "Lonely in the Nights"!

I've seen him several times and every time I get a deeper appreciation for his playing. The guy is just flat out amazing. Very humble about it too.

 

[thiswaythatway]

He's one of my favorite players, but IMHO, he hasn't been the same since the Venus Island days. Just listen to him now then watch the Austin City Limits DVD. His tone sounds different and his chops and taken a few steps back.

Of course he's still better than 98% of the planet and still one of my favorites.

 

[70strathead]

He's one of my favorite players, but IMHO, he hasn't been the same since the Venus Island days. Just listen to him now then watch the Austin City Limits DVD. His tone sounds different and his chops and taken a few steps back.

Of course he's still better than 98% of the planet and still one of my favorites.

I do agree with you. I must have seen him 5 or 6 times after Venus tour and when he switched to 50w heads his sound definitely changed, not in a real bad way, it just was BIGGER sounding back then. I have to say though last night performance rival the venus tour playing/chops wise, he was definitely laying some wicked shit down, but nothing compares to the 85' ACL and 89' ACL playing. I do think his musical language/horizons have defintely expanded since the old days. he listens to Pat Metheny alot, i can hear the same improv apprach as Pat, which is really storytelling...