Well, my NAMM trip is only a couple of days old, and I can already tell this will be similar to 2008 when I was exhausted everyday from all the activity. I arrived from Chicago late Wednesday afternoon to find I had forgotten my camera battery charger at home (major Doh!). I couldn't find the model I needed in a store out here, so my lovely wife was kind enough to ship my charger to me at my hotel. The package is arriving later today, so I've refrained from taking too many shots yet to save my battery. Granted, I do have the iPhone camera, but it's not ideal, especially in dark concert environments.
Undaunted by this temporary setback, I proceeded to my first concert outing - The Bombastic Meatbats at the Baked Potato. I caught their first set, and enjoyed every minute of it. I love the funky, throwback vibe of this band. Jeff Kollman was fantastic on guitar, but the secret weapon on this gig was Kenny Aronoff on drums. Aronoff plays with the Meatbats on occasion when their original drummer Chad Smith is not available, and he absolutely burned the place to the ground Wednesday night. The guy is an old pro who plays everything with conviction and intensity. Such a fun player to watch.
NAMM officially opened on Thursday - when I hit the show floor I was still tired from the long travel day and late night excursion to the Spud. Luckily the first day of NAMM is traditionally light in terms of artist appearances and demos, so I took it pretty easy and got the lay of the land. I took very few pictures due to my aforementioned camera situation, but I did see some cool stuff. I saw artists like Steve Morse, Tony Levin, and Vernon Reid milling around, and checked out some cool guitars at Ernie Ball, Suhr, and a few other booths. I'll dig into the gear a little more in the coming days when I can use a proper camera that isn't on the brink of death every second. The show was waaaay crowded. More so than last year's opening day. I can't imagine what it will be like today and Saturday. Quick side note: if you are attending NAMM and you own an iPhone, the NAMM 2010 Follow Me app is not only essential, it's super cool as well. You can pull up maps of the show floor, lists of exhibitors, schedule events, and much more. The coolest feature though, is the on-floor location awareness. Just leave your WiFi on, and the app will show your location on the map after a few seconds. You don't even need to connect to an access point. Way cool, and highly recommended.
After the first day on the show floor, it was time for my second concert of the trip - The Steve Morse Band at Brixton South Bay in Redondo Beach. I'll be posting a full review of this gig soon, but I'll say this for now - Despite a few technical difficulties, this was a fantastic show. I've seen Morse at least a dozen times, and he's always great. One of the opening acts was Morse playing with vocalist Sarah Spencer. They have a new album coming out called Angelfire, and this was their first gig ever. In fact, they were selling pre-release copies of the disc at the show, and I happened to buy the first copy of the album ever sold. To anyone. Ever! Not only that, but Sarah was there when I bought it and was kind enough to sign it for me. Very cool! Here are my pics from the show:
Flickr - Steve Morse Band: Live at Brixton South Bay - 1/14/10
That's all for now. Time to get ready for day two. Tonight after NAMM, I'll be heading back up to Studio City to catch Scott Henderson's first set at the Baked Potato. Don't forget to follow my
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