Dave’s Photo Blog

Jeremy was full of energy. He is a fearless performer – throwing himself into the music and lyrics, even playing harmonica for one number.

The fans in every country are rabid, dedicated Iron Maiden fans, but you can see how a single group united people across almost every continent in the reactions and behaviors of the fans in each city they play in.

Once we had the chords down, he threw in the bass line and we started playing more and more sections of the song. Towards the end, he showed some alternative techniques for changing up the bass line, soloing and even walking chords down to the end of the song.

But what stands out the most from this show is the raw emotion displayed by Ronnie. Ronnie playing is a full-body experience. If you are close enough, you can even hear him humming along with the notes of his solos.

Fender apparently thinks they can get a premium for taking a brand new guitar and scuffing it up with an orbital sander. What’s up with that? I mean really, this is getting ridiculous.

I never really looked at recording the record as producing. The whole process felt more like creating a film than a record. Each song was like a scene and the layers of arrangement where like lights, angles and wardrobe.

When I returned for the performance, however, it had been transformed. The front of the cafe had been cleared and a performance space had been created complete with a live sound board.

…get your copy & spread the word – I’m all for giving shit away.

I have since some to realize that I’m pretty hard on acoustic guitars. I bend the strings. I bang on the face with my hands. I rock the neck back and forth to create tremolo. I pound the strings with the side of the pick. To me, it’s all about using every aspect of the instrument to create different sounds.

Mission of Burma was a very different band when they hit the scene in Boston all those years ago. They used a lot of techniques that should make music less accessible – cacaphonous noise from the guitar, different rythyms than their contemporaries, the tape-loop and so forth and they borrowed from punk, hardcore and other genres to set a new direction in music.