Reunion Blues Backstage Banter

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The Carl Palmer Band

The Carl Palmer Band
The Carl Palmer Band
What can I say but CARL PALMER IS THE MAN! I still haven’t come down from watching his power-trio band take me to new and insane musical heights, leaving myself and the entire theatre with our jaws in our laps and our minds soaring.

This power-trio consists of Carl Palmer on drums, Paul Bielatowicz on guitar, and Simon Fitzpatrick on bass. They were all simply out of this world and, yes, yours truly had the great honor to work as their monitor engineer at the Petaluma Mystic Theatre.

Watching Carl during sound check was a real treat… to see a master craftsman set up and design his tone. First he went through his entire stick bag to test the tonality of each stick for consistency of tone and quality. Then to watch him tune each drum head, and not just bang on each corner and make a few turns with the drum key but to go through each hit with different dynamics to get the right tone for attack, punch, and bottom end creating a nice round sound. Not only does Carl Palmer sound check his kit, he then sits out in the middle of the theatre and has the bass player and guitar player indivdually go through each of their amp channels of clean and distortion, and all the floor effects dialing in their levels and effect modulations.

Carl’s ear is so good he could be the next greatest sound engineer. He even knew which frequency that he prefers to have notched out of his kick drum for his monitor feed. I mean, I never get drummers knowing engineering terms, it’s usually “My monitor is making a ringing sound can you make it go away?” I would then go to the channel with the particular drum with the “ringing” and remove the frequency that is causing the feedback. Carl knew the frequency just like a piano player would know not only the note but also its frequency of a single key that was struck on a piano. He probably learned it from Emerson while working with him all those years!

The entire band was insanely remarkable and each player’s solo performance was like no other… with Paul and his lightning fast sweep picking, chord tapping, up and down the guitar neck leads that just had folks staring so hard you swore their eyes were going to pop out. Then Simon and his ever-so clever remix of Queens ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ finger tapping and slap bass thrown in here and there for the heavier parts was amazing to watch. Seeing one person play that song and all instrumental and vocal parts simultaneously on one instrument, I guess if you are going to play with Carl Palmer, you better know how to play better than the rest to keep up with this living legend. It was all an awe inspiring performance that I was not only glad to watch but also to help be apart of the making.

Technology in Music

Technology has always seemed to make music much easier to create, and or produce. But is that always the case?

As an audio engineer, I have worked in many studios have acquired a deep passion for technology over the years. Having spent countless hours using everything from vintage compressors and Microphone pre amps, to digital mixers and Pro tools, most times I’ve found, the best albums have come from littlest processing.

If you listen, you can actually hear the technology in today’s recordings. Perhaps you’ve turned on the radio lately to hear “a computer” singing a whole song to you through Auto-Tune. Or heard a hip hop song that uses the looping chorus of an old seventies tune as its hook. Or maybe your buddy gave you a copy of his CD that he wrote, produced, and mastered all himself.

With the advent of the home studio, the everyday musician now has access to more tools than the average studio had their hands on 30 years ago. Well then I beg the question, how come those old songs still are said to be some of the best songs of all time.

Technology can be a double edged sword. With Technology, Comes options, and perhaps too many options at that. (Reverbs, Room calibrations, Near-field monitors, Comb Phasing, Acoustics, ect..) In the past Musicians and engineers were completely separate. (“right brain v.s. left brain”) You see today’s musician now wears many hats; a recording engineer, a promoter, a song writer, a manager, and oh yeah, a composer. With all those responsibilities it’s no wonder why the quality of a “song” has diminished.

Talking to fellow engineers and song writers, there is a collective understanding amongst the community; the least amount of technology in the recording process, the better. “My eight track, My guitar, My song”.

An Ode to the Random

I don’t know if the rest of the iPod music community is as addicted to “shuffle” as I am, but I have to confess a deep love for the random. With my 160gig ipod in tow, I am in awe of the creative thought processes that derive from interesting musical combinations. The intersection of Billie Holiday and Trent Reznor on an overcast Thursday afternoon, or the junction of Black Metal and Doom Jazz on my daily commute can fuel my imagination for days.

Primitives

In addition to the general creative stimulation of the shuffle feature, I love rediscovering a lost classic or two. Recently my iPod unearthed a relatively unknown classic circa 1988 by UK band “The Primitives”. It struck me that this band were two decades ahead of their time – essentially remaining obscure but pre-empting the current mass of indie girl-group inspired “noise pop” bands (Raveonettes, Best Coast, Vivian Girls etc.). Best of all they wrote some great songs. I urge anyone to resist the melody of “Crash” or the punk energy of “Stop Killing Me”. If you get a chance, grab their album “Lovely” – it’s been out of print on CD for years, but has recently been reintroduced digitally and can be picked up at  iTunes or Amazon mp3.

While I still love the experience of a well-crafted album played front to back (preferably on vinyl in a dimly lit, acoustically balanced room), an 18,000 song library set to random shuffle is one of the great joys of living in the 21st century. Here’s to the modern age.

"Passion" and the New Economy

It’s safe to say that the Economy is on everyone’s mind these days. Money is getting tight, credit is getting tighter, and everyone from CEOs to the lowliest mailroom employee are looking for ways to cut back and save money.

Music is something that transcends the economic situation because for most of us, it’s not just another item to be “consumed”. We eat, drink, sleep, breathe, and swim in it. Music makes our lives richer, it fulfills our need to create, and for most of us it’s a big part of who we are as human beings. It is Passion.

So I guess I’m curious. How is the new economy affecting your musical life? Are you finding it necessary to scale down, or are there certain things you can’t live without despite the economic situation?

NIN Sets Stage Ablaze With "Lights in the Sky"

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Trent Reznor
If you are one of the unlucky few to have missed Nine Inch Nails rolling through town recently, I highly recommend you carve out some space in your schedule to catch the band as they head out across the US for the second leg of their “Lights in the Sky” tour.

Trent Reznor has created a mind-blowing, technology-enhanced stage presentation with the help of a massive computer controlled lighting rig and the addition of several light sensitive LED mesh curtains that add an incredible visual element to the intense and energetic show NIN are known to deliver. If this sounds too much like science fiction, Reznor would agree; but when the stage is completely obscured by digital static which is then peeled away to reveal the band performing one of the instrumental tracks from the recent Ghosts record, it is difficult to avoid the hyperbole that this is, quite possibly, “the coolest thing you have ever seen”.

You can check out some of the clips on youtube, and if NIN is going to be anywhere within a few hundred miles of you, don’t miss it.

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Robin Fink

(In related news, Robin Finck, guitarist for Nine Inch Nails, has been using the Reunion Blues merino wool straps on several of his guitars. His guitar tech Chris Whitemyer contacted us several months ago to track down some straps, which at that point were not on the market. He explained that Robin had insisted on Reunion Blues since this was the best strap he had ever used. Chris and Robin were very helpful in the re-introduction of the strap so it was great to see it in use on stage. Thanks guys!)