So the other week I finally got to cross off an important point on my to-do-before-I-die list: I finally got to see one of my absolute top two favorite guitar players live on stage: Mr Jake E Lee performing with his Red Dragon Cartel at Virgin Oil in Helsinki, Finland - and boy did he totally wipe the floor, delivering beyond expectations. Though I saw him with Ozzy at Monsters Of Rock at Råsunda in 1986 - I was a kid and don't really remember that much of it - it was sort of the first time I got to see him playing live and was indeed a thrilling experience. It was so great to see that he seemed so happy and really enjoying doing his thing again after being away all these years. He's such a great kick-ass performer and have such a tasteful playing and I now realize how much I really am influenced by him, not only the guitar playing but in many ways. The improvisation, the originality and then the mixing of kick-ass-punk-attitude, feeling and technique that I've always been striving to get a perfect blend of in my playing and performance, well Mr Lee's sure got it all nailed down in the perfect tasteful cocktail. Such a great songwriter as well. Hope he'll stay in the scene now that he's back, playing in whatever constellation he feels comfortable in, doesn't really matter (though it surely would be nice to see him with a real killer band with a killer line-up like the first version of Badlands or the Ozzy years...).
Yeah, it sure was a great and important moment for me and it feels pretty good now when I've witnessed my top two influences guitar wise, my heroes!, live on stage - and I can cross that off the list - and the fact that they both totally delivered the gods living up to my very high anticipation. The other one is off course Mr George Lynch who I saw with Lynch Mob (with the killer line-up: Oni Logan, Robbie Crane and Brian Tichy!) in Västerås, Sweden some years ago. (Had never seen him playing live prior to that. Awesome show, awesome moment for me.)
Truly, truly wishing all the best for these two geniuses and my main influences - and that they will get the appreciation that they really deserve!
When it comes to the Saari Camp the renovation of my house, family and business has once again been taking time from the studio, real time eaters those things, and add some personal stuff of some of the others involved the recording of the last bits and pieces of my solo album has been postponed somewhat. It's not that easy to get the time and dedication it all requires when your own ass isn't the only one that's busy as hell. But I can see the end of the tunnel. (...and even beyond: The planning of solo album number 2 is actually already floating about.) It's not only my studio time that's being eaten by my life but playing music time as a whole - I wanna play more guitar! ...well, at least I got to do a couple of great and exiting gigs last month with Straight 8 Diablo and Lizard Eye and I get to throw in a rehearsal every now and then. Hoping there'll be more of all that in the next future though.
We'll be putting out some rehearsal videos every once in a while with Straight Eight Diablo to document the progress and growth of the band, the S8D evolution. Though we only manage to get time to rehearse maybe once every second week or so but we're all loving what we have going on so much so we'll just keep hanging on there. Hopefully we'll be getting able to throw in some gigs any time soon now. Here a tune called "Regret" being rehearsed:
You'll find more of them S8D videos over here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSCQuXYg0COuHPzZWTG-jt4ThuPgyV9Xj
Over and out.
/ PM
