NAMM 2010: Final Day Wrap-Up

The final day of the 2010 Winter NAMM show was pretty light, both in terms of artist appearances and foot traffic. Carl Verheyen played at the Alfred Publishing booth, and was great as always. While he did play a few instrumental tunes, most of his songs included vocals, and he did it all solo - no backing tracks. I loved the meaty, natural tone he was getting from his strat.

I played some nice guitars on Sunday, including some great Fenders, but my favorite guitars of the day were the Suhr Pro Series models. I had stopped by Suhr a few times during the show, but hadn't played anything until the last day (most of their guitars were mounted and not playable anyway). The Pro Series stuff was really nice; great necks, perfect action. I think I liked the Teles the best.

The highlight of the last day (and one of the biggest highlights of my  entire trip) was seeing OHM and Kofi Baker's Tribute to Cream with Mike Keneally at Alva's Showroom. This is another show that deserves it's own review post, but I'll give you the short version here. "Amazing" and "Fun" are two words that immediately come to mind when I think of this show. OHM played first, and were incredible. Chris Poland was ferocious from beginning to end. After OHM's set, Kofi Baker (drums) and Pag (bass) returned to the stage with Mike Keneally for a set of amazing, eccentric, improv-laden Cream tunes (Kofi Baker is the son of legendary Cream drummer Ginger Baker). Poland joined in at the end and really turned it into one of those special shows that all in attendance will be talking about forever. Again, I'd like to post more on this gig later, including a gallery of my photos. I shot some video also, though the sound is not great. I'll post the vids shortly.

Looking back, this NAMM trip reminded me of 2008 when there were amazing gigs every night, and I got to chat with many of my favorite players. NAMM for me is more about the musicians I get to see play than the gear I get to play myself. Living in the Chicago area, seeing a local show from someone like Alex Machacek, for example, is not a likely scenario at the moment. Having said that, when I hang and talk with guys like Souvik Dutta from Abstract Logix, or Matt Lincir from Alva's, it bolsters my faith that the type of fusion and jazz music I like could be effectively promoted to a wider audience. For now though, a trip to NAMM gives me the fix I need.

Look for more NAMM posts this week including gig reviews and photo galleries.

Comments

[Stratoblogster]

Rich, Thanks for going to NAMM and helping to represent the guitar blog community!!! I just posted a NAMM wrap-up with plugs to the guitar bloggers who attended.

jp

[Rich]

Thanks man! I still have more NAMM stuff yet to post. Stay tuned.