Jeff Loomis at An Club (2011)
An Club (Athens, Greece)
Jeff Loomis
•
March 27, 2011
Jeff Loomis was in Greece this weekend, yesterday in Thessaloniki and today (27-3-2011) in Athens, in order to give to all interested guitarists and not only, a guitar seminar. I concider Jeff Loomis on of the most talented and clever guitarists in metal music and such an event I simply couldn't miss. Jeff walked on stage around 21:30 and he was warmly welcomed by a crowd that was in their majority NEVERMORE fans.
Jeff made his entrance with the first song ("Shouting Fire At A Funeral") of his solo album "Zero Order Phase". He played some NEVERMORE songs and also some from his personal debut. "Enemies of Reality", "The Obsidian Conspiracy", "Your Poison Throne", "Miles Of Machines" were some of them.
In between the songs he stopped to aswer questions, some of which were very on the spot, while there was a translator on the background to translate from English to Greek. That's him you can hear on the videos btw, and as you can see having a translator was quite redundant as it stalled the aswers and the next questions and everybody there seemed to understand very well what Jeff was saying. Nevertheless, thumbs up to the promoter for caring enough to have someone present to prevent any language barriers.
He was in a great mood and hapilly answered a lot of questions and shared guitar info. He was specifically asked from the audience to talk about his solos, and he did in a really nice and polite way. Diminished fifths, minors, picking and alternate picking, string gauges, warm-up exercises and colossal arpeggios…everything was on the menu.
He was also asked about his signature guitar he was playing with and therefore got the chance to present to us his 7-string Schecter signature guitar, a picture of which and a video on warming techniques can be viewed below.
He mention guitarists that influenced him and names heard were Marty Friedman, Dimebag and Rhandy Roads. From nowadays players he pointed out Ferdrik from Meshuggah. He laughed when somebody asked him about his first guitar. "A Peavy T-15 with it's case having a built-in amplifier!" -he said and of course everybody laughed. (Video footage of this can be watched below)
Towards the end of this beautiful evening, Jeff mentioned NEVERMORE's contract with Century Media Records and the fact that it's about to end, leaving them with only one more album to release with the label. The band will go full force for this upcoming release and will put their best effort and he didn't exclude the idea of another concept album, while talked a little bit a bout his cooperation with Warrel Dane. (Video footage of this can be watched below)
In general, the whole atmosphere was great, Jeff Loomis is a very down to earth, full of positive energy person, never stopped smiling and enjoying the unexpected loud singing of everybody while he was playing NEVERMORE songs. The event ended with him singing autographs, taking pictures and answering extra questions. Overall this will be a night to remember, enjoyable yet educative and well…I got the chance to see one of my guitar idols sharing a little something of his magic, simply priceless!
(can also be viewed in High Definition 720p by clicking here)
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