Took a shot of my live setup with my iPhone this past Sunday. Thought it might be fun to diagram exactly what I play with.

1. Apple MacBook Pro (GR) - this is my workhorse. In addition to running Guitar Rig I use this for most all my personal work. It’s an older MBP but it gets the job done. 2.33 Ghz Intel Core Duo, 2GB RAM, 120GB HD
2. Guitar Rig 3 - After leading worship and playing lead guitar in a lot of worship bands in smaller venues I was sick of dealing with stage volume issues. I was having to turn my amp down so low amp didn’t have the chance to get to the warm part of the tubes. Literally I was having to have my amp down at 1 so the FOH guys would stop complaining. So I was really limited in my tone and sound. All direct options whether software or multi effects had such poor quality and weren’t an option until I found Guitar Rig. I experimented with it on some recording projects, then tried it live and was very happy with the flexibility and sound quality. So this is my rig for small venues and I highly recommend it for congregations 300 or smaller.
3. Behringer FCB 1010 Midi Foot Controller - I don’t particularly like the foot controller that comes with Guitar Rig, so I just got the software edition and got my own midi foot controller. 2 foot pedals is a must, dedicated volume pedal then the other for trem speed, wah, what have you.
4. Presonus FireBox - “2 out of 3 musicians recommend Presonus for their firewire audio interface needs.” I’m one of the 2.
5. Apple Macbook Pro (Reason) -My newer machine. 2.4Ghz Intel Core Duo, 4GB Ram, 150GB HD
6. Reason 4 - I talked a bit about how this came to be in an earlier post. Slowly been integrating more synth tracks, live and recorded.
7. M-Audio Oxygen8 v2 - wanted something small and ultra portable with a decent amount of assignable controls and transport. This fit the bill. Great controller for Reason.

Guitars

1. Fender American Standard Strat 3-tone sunburst - not old enough to say the year yet. Over 10yrs old, less than 30.
2. Gibson Super Jumbo Acoustic, J100 Xtra - I love jumbo acoustics, I like them to sound full, deep and rich. Not a fan of bright acoustics.

Some other time I’ll diagram my amp and stomp box setup. So that’s what I play regularly, comment with your setup.

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Mark and I attended a very interesting and entertaining concert last night, Bon Jovi with Chris Daughtry as the opening act. Mind you, we would never have purchased tickets for this show as I think Bon Jovi is one of the cheesiest rockers out there but we were not going to turn down free tickets and a suite with free food and drinks. We went with the mindset that it was probably going to be pretty bad but a chance for some great people watching and another opportunity to see what we can receive, redeem and reject from the experience. So with that being said here is some feedback on the show:

Daughtry’s music was good, not great, in the words of Randy Jackson, “it was just alright for me dog”. The songs were clean and rockin but I realized after each one of them ended I had no interest in hearing them ever again so that’s never a good sign. The thing I liked the most about them was their humility and their camaraderie as a band. It seemed like they were just a group of close friends getting to live out a dream playing in front of a packed crowd of 18,000 and loving every moment of it. They were fun to watch and their sound was tight so all in all I give their entertainment factor a C+.

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On April 1st Delirious released Kingdom of Comfort and Hillsong United released their 2 disc live album The I Heart Revolution: With Hearts as One. Both of these bands are in my “buy first think later” category, they’ve earned it. Delirious continues to pour out songs from their ministry in Africa. I’m almost surprised Bono didn’t appear on this album, it would have made a lot of sense given both of their missional work there. 2 songs immediately jump out at me on the cd, All God’s Children and My Soul Sings. I heard them play this live in Phoenix and man, incredibly anointed, powerful, worship.

Hillsong United does their usual praise and worship destruction. I’ve heard some complain about the concert/performance atmosphere and “emotional” songs. Here’s my take. These guys love God, no doubt about it. They seek to honor God, they’ve devoted their lives to it and are anointed leaders. I think people equate professionalism to selfish performance and that’s too bad. They play to God in excellence they sacrifice and offer first fruits. This is their authentic pouring out of themselves. I love the anticipation people have of God’s presence at their “concerts”. I’ve been in lines that wrapped around buildings as people wait to experience God. I think that’s great, this should be the atmosphere every Sunday morning. We serve the King of Kings, I think there is something wrong with us if we don’t have tremendous anticipation of the Holy Spirit moving in power. Where this turns to worship of art or the artist, we’ve gone astray, but I don’t believe just because Hillsong plays in excellence and people are excited to be apart of it, that is misdirected worship.

BTW I just saw on Amazon they run a deal if you buy both albums…stinky…I bought it on iTunes before I saw this.

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Helio Sequence headlined a show at the Rhythm Room in Phoenix last Tuesday (Mar 18th). Our Rising Sound band attended and was tasked with a homework assignment. Observe, enjoy, taken in the experience but more importantly assess. See what we as a church can receive, what can be redeemed and what we must reject. I’ll try and summarize the observations of ORS and inject some of my own.

It was absolutely one of the best small venue shows I’ve ever attended. Helio just destroyed the place, they were flawless and they left many of us from ORS inspired. Those of you in religious bondage may be asking, “How could you possibly be inspired by a secular band”. I’ll get into the redemptive aspects of the show, but first lets take a look at what we can out right receive as the church.

Receive:

• arrangement philosophy - Helio plays to pre-recorded tracks as you may know, so their arrangement is pretty much set in stone. Usually a live show is the band’s opportunity to mix things up, I usually find it a mistake and wish they stuck to the record. So I was looking forward to hearing what I like. Josh noticed he was fearful or getting stuck in arrangements in worship. But upon seeing Helio realized that an expected arrangement can actually be liberating. Too much mucking about with the arrangement can be really distracting for a congregation even though it might be exciting for the band. Find an arrangement that serves the song well and stand by it.
• musicianship - both members of the band, Brandon Summer (vocals, guitar) and Benjamin Weikel (drums, synth work), are incredible musicians. The creativity they display is unbelievable but it always, always serves the song. Very rarely do you hear something out of left field that seems indulgent. Brandon’s guitar work is so unique and he’s certainly carved out a signature sound. I thought for sure with the amount of delay and reverb he plays with it would muddy up the room, but he’s able to cut through and knows how to manage it, let’s it get crazy sometimes but mostly does a lot of single string work. Benjamin’s drumming is phenomenal. His drum patterns are so uniquely crafted and memorable, they become almost melodic. His time is perfect and with the patterns he plays it’s even more impressive how spot on he is.

Redeem:

• passion - Nearly everyone on ORS responded noticing the band’s passion. They were 100% devoted to their music, having a blast, being creative. You could tell there wasn’t anyplace else they wanted to be, it’s what they’d given their life to, given the best of themselves to, their first fruits. Passion can be a huge problem in church bands in a number of areas but it usually comes down to a single reason. Being passionately in love with God and doing what you’re called to do. One without the other leaves us a shell of a musician who feels his presence is required not desired. I can’t stand seeing 5 robots lead worship, completely stiff and completely unmoved by the presence of God. If we are ushering in the presence of the Almighty, I’d think we should make sure our bodies recognize that and respond accordingly. God can redeem the passion in this concert for music, fame, and turn our hearts to passion for Christ.
• worshipful presence - Kendra noticed the worshipful presence in the place and how people there were enthralled, consumed, in awe of the music being played. Everyone was certainly focused and in a certain meditative state. It is a real simple view of how the enemy is crafty in not having creation reject it’s purpose, but just distorting it enough to have us forsake the true purpose and replace it with a selfish one. The arts have always been a battleground in this because it’s the outpouring of ourselves we can’t just turn that off. Since we are a fallen people, our art is fallen as well. Praise be to God that by his grace he can redeem that and purpose, hope, love can be restored in that. This band who gauges their success on the worship they receive could be redeemed and success given to God based on Kingdom effectiveness

Reject:

• pride - plenty of this to go around and I don’t mean this just in relation to the band and venue. Certainly plenty of pride in the church to deal with. The only authority I feel I have in this is knowing just how screwed up I am in pride and how desperately I need Jesus.

This was a fantastic learning experience for me and for ORS. I’ve been to a lot of concerts, but not many local ones. It was a great chance to see what kind of music the community is into, what the local scene is and start getting plugged into it. As the worship leader I have to know what is moving the community musically. Otherwise I shouldn’t be surprised when the community is disconnected, uninterested and dispassionate for the music in the church. I think we’ve made some good strides in this area. We have a big concert coming up and I look forward to continuing to press into the local community more and more musically.

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I had the pleasure of attending my first Ryan Adams concert this last Friday night in Tucson. I’m a huge Ryan Adams fan and have never had the chance to catch him live. He doesn’t tour out west all that often so when I saw he was playing a couple hours away I jumped on it. His latest album “Easy Tiger” is a great album and spotlights everything great about Ryan Adams. He has incredible flexibility and range in his songwriting, vocals and instrumentation. He can arrange pretty hard rocking tunes, to acoustic country and usually settles in some sort of rock-alt-country club, of which I’m a card carrying member.

His band, the Cardinals, are outstanding and I think he’s really found a groove with these guys. On stage Ryan seemed so comfortable and it’s evident in the music. There now seems to be 3 phases to his career. Whiskeytown days, solo period, and now the Cardinals. I love all 3 but am really excited about the current incarnation.

The concert started without any opening band which was cool. Their set was a very understated, just a white background with backlighting colors/patterns and a few cactus props in front of it. Their lighting was very interesting, they chose not to use the theatre’s lighting, instead went with what they brought. They just had some up lighting off the floor and some back/side lighting that hit the background as well. They were perfectly happy to be dark for extended periods of time. It created a very homey feel, there was rarely any motion lighting happening in the middle of songs. At least nothing very prominent. I’ve included a few shots from my iPhone, not the best quality but you get the idea.

Audio wise it was incredible sounding, the mix was fantastic. So much better than the Minus the Bear/Helio Sequence concert I blogged about in Nov. Vocally they were phenomenal. I love Ryan Adams voice, but thought he might fly off the handle a bit live. He definitely stretched himself but he was near flawless. The tone to his voice is just incredible live and he can do so much with it. Neal Casal was amazing on backing vocals, his harmonies were perfect. Everyone played with passion and some songs like “The Sun Also Sets” were incredibly powerful.

The overall vibe of the concert had a “come into our living room” type of feel. There was a lot of banter between songs, there were long downtimes, fun and games. It wasn’t a very tight ship, depending on your taste I guess that could be a good thing or a bad thing. I enjoyed the show but wish there was less down time between songs, I don’t think they ever stringed a few songs together.

With this laid back atmosphere I was increasingly worried Ryan might have one of his “freakouts” and walk off stage. He was throwing em back at a good pace. But he seemed happy and he was enjoying himself, so thankfully the concert wasn’t cut short. I’m stoked I got to see him, it really was musically inspiring and just plain fun. Great show boys, keep it up!

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I was sent Sovereign Grace’s latest Christmas Album, Savior, to review by Worship Matters blog. I’ll be honest, my expectations were not that high considering the genre. Christmas music is most often a broad road of lyrical cliche surrounded by cheesy instrumentation and bad group vocals. There are a few exceptions to that terrible generalization and thank God for those exceptions. So I tried to clear my head of any expectation and listen with an open mind and heart. I was pleasantly surprised by what I heard. I’ll give a song by song blow, and then my overall summary. I go with a 5 star system, 5 stars being great, 1 star being not so great.

1. Christ the Lord is Born Today - Pleased to hear a good acoustic guitar mix, recorded very well. Production on this song is really spot on, the Christmas bells weren’t over used, I think they really helped the song. Vocals are great, harmonies are well placed and the melody is interesting while remaining singable. Lyrics are a traditional rejoicing in our Savior’s birth, glad there’s only 3 verses and didn’t go way traditional with 8-9 verses. Mission accomplished on this song, glad to start this record off on a good note, let’s hope it continues. (4 stars)

2. Hope Has Come - Dang, why did they use that drum sample. It sounds straight out of a Casio keyboard Radio Shack gives away in their business card drawings each month. And not in a cool, retro, “yeah we were trying to get that sound” sort of way. Really any sample but that would have done. Mercifully they stop it at verse 2, now I can get back to seeing if the song is good. The chorus is nice, it’s not terribly interesting, but it’s pleasant and engaging. Here come the group vocals, sounding pretty good at first, wish they would have only sung on the “Alleluia” lines, got a little over bearing there for a bit. The ending to the song is very strange, doesn’t seem to fit the progression or vibe of the song, a little out of left field. (2 stars)

3. Emmanuel, Emmanuel - 3rd song in a row with an acoustic guitar into. Hoping this pattern breaks soon. Like the pianos on this song, strings are borderline over used. Not quite ready to say they are yet, but dangerously close. But overall the production is good. This is quite lyrically jam packed, a lot to get out in the verses. Chorus gives a nice change of pace. I like the melody on the final “Emmanuel”, wish that would have been more of a centerpiece in the chorus. (3 stars)

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Last Thursday evening Minus the Bear was playing a show at the Marquee Theatre in Tempe AZ. My brother and myself are big Minus the Bear fans so we weren’t going to miss this show. They were touring with a band called Helio Sequence, a fellow Northwest band. I’d never heard of them but I hear a tune on their myspace page and was quite impressed. It was shaping up to be one heck of a show.

The opening band was pretty terrible. They had 3 acoustic guitar players, one of which sat down behind a piano, which would have been cool had he played a single note on the piano. As it stands I have no idea why the piano was up there or why he was sitting behind it. The third acoustic guitar player was obviously one of their dear friends and they didn’t have the heart to tell him they don’t need him anymore. They did a lot of folksy counter melodies, and it sound cool the first couple songs. But eventually they lost steam and their harmonies were not in key and the wheels started to come off. Also there was just so many harmonies all the time it got less interesting each song and just annoying, no space at all.

Then Helio Sequence stepped on stage. They consist of a drummer(Benjamin Weikel) who looks like he had to take a day of at Microsoft to be here and a very unassuming, understated lead singer/guitar player(Brandon Summers). Certainly not a pair you’d see on the street and think, musicians. They begin the first song as they did most all their songs, drummer coming in right on time with a synth track. Drummer is absolutely nails, dude has near perfect time (playing to a click is not easy) and he lays down just amazing rhythms. Benjamin used to be the drummer for Modest Mouse. Very unorthodox playing style, you can tell he is having a blast, I was having a blast just watching him play. Brandon has an amazing voice, reminds me a lot of John Lennon, especially when he does half yell/growl. He used a ton of reverb on his voice with some delay and at first I was hesitant that it was called for. But it really worked over the entire set. He’s an amazing song writer, vocalist, guitar player. I was blown away how good they sounded, I thought for sure there would be empty spots with just 2 guys up there, but I never got that sense. They completely rocked and it made me want to go buy all their music. To me that’s a successful show.

The same can’t be said for Minus the Bear, whom I love. Their mix was terrible first off. None of the cool guitar parts cut through, it was just a wall of mush. Their set lacked a story as well, meaning it didn’t take you on any journey. I just wish their was a little more unexpectedness to it, some pauses for us to catch our breath. But it was just fast fast fast, loud loud loud. I like fast and loud, but there has to be some dynamic. So I came in expecting to see Minus the Bear rock and nothing else, what I got was Helio Sequence stealing the show, making me a huge fan and Minus the Bear leaving me wanting.

Go buy their latest album Love and Distance, thank me later. Here’s a video for “Don’t Look Away” that Fred Armisen (SNL) directed for Helio Sequence.

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Radiohead released their latest album In Rainbows last week. You can set your own price and download it from their website. I pre-ordered my download and it all went very seamlessly. I don’t like to give an opinion of an album until after I’ve had the opportunity to listen to it multiple times through. So I’ve been listening to it the last week and my overall impression is positive. I’m a HUGE fan of The Bends and OK Computer, 2 of the best albums ever released. But once they went down the more experimental avenue I started to get less excited about their stuff. I could cherry pick songs I liked from each of their latest cd’s, but I thought they weren’t end to end solid records. But In Rainbows is a terrific blend of their more experimental rhythms and melodies with straight up guitar driven rock.

Now for the guts….First off Jonny Greenwood again shows why he is one of the greatest guitar players of all time. His ear is just incredible, he is able to hear the most incredibly unique guitar parts that just elevate the song to an entirely different level. I’ve never heard him overplay, I’ve never heard him play some cookie cutter lead…he’s incredible. He makes a comeback on this album and creates some beautiful, complex, deep progressions. Ed Obrien(second guitarist) is no slouch either BTW. Let’s take a look song by song:

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