John Hendow

On Tuesday 7/29 we held a full-band rehearsal in preparation for the upcoming BowieVision shows. When I recently upgraded my Fractal Audio AxeFX II XL to the most current firmware, I also updated the amp models in all of the presets I use for this show. It took me a bit of adjustment to get the tones back to where I wanted them, but it also meant I could do a bit of tweaking based on my experiences at the most recent shows.

For this rehearsal, I brought along my laptop so I could run Axe-Edit and make edits on the fly. It allowed me to dial in some quick changes for added punch and clarity. One new addition for the upcoming show is the song “Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)”, which has some wonderful guitar work by Robert Fripp. I put together a patch with multiple scenes for rehearsal, but in reviewing the playback afterward I decided my solo tone was not ominous enough. So I completely rebuilt the patch, making sure I have a sufficiently warped guitar tone for the solo sections.

This rehearsal also marked the debut of my expansion switch accessory for my MFC-101. It adds four additional switches to the board, and will allow me to call up some additional functions during our set.

Our rehearsal space is a big room with high ceilings and hard surfaces. The sound splatters around a lot, and that space could sure use some aggressive sound control. If we owned it, there would be corner traps, sound panels, and clouds. But it does have the benefit of being a live room, which lets us practice working in a challenging environment. If we can sound good, and play in time in that space, we can do it anywhere.

The next show will be Saturday 8/2 at Nectar Lounge in Fremont. I’m really looking forward to debuting some new material, and meeting fans in a new venue.

This coming Saturday, my band BowieVision is performing at Nectar in Seattle. We are working on a few new songs for this performance, including “Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)”, from the Scary Monsters album. It’s another time I have to recreate the frenetic 1980s guitar sound of Robert Fripp. On this track, I believe he is using a Watkins Electric Music (WEM) Project V fuzz pedal, an extraordinarily rare guitar effect that he also used on the Brian Eno recordings of the same period. This pedal can produce a classic buzz-saw fuzz effect (think “Satisfaction” by the Stones) and also has a primitive bit-crusher effect that deconstructs the sound into almost a ring-modulation tone.

It’s an interesting challenge replicating this tone in the AxeFX. For the guitar parts in “Fashion”, I use a complex stacked tone with two separate effects chains, with dedicated amps and cabinets for each part of the overall tone. During the two solo sections I switch to separate scenes with additional gain and modulation intensities.

Without question, Robert Fripp’s guitar parts are the most challenging aspect of this band to recreate. His sound and playing is unique and idiomatic unto itself. I have listened to mister Fripp’s playing in many settings, and appreciate how he approaches music. It’s a fun puzzle to work out his parts and play them live. After our recent Triple Door performance, an audience member complimented me on having navigated those difficult solos in “Fashion” with an authentic tone. That really means a lot to me, since those parts total less sixty seconds of music and took several days to work out.

On Saturday 7/16, I performed at the Bite of Seattle with two of my bands: The Dudley Manlove Quartet, and BowieVision. We had the opportunity for both bands to perform on the same stage, in adjacent time slots, so it was actually very easy from a logistic standpoint. The Bite of Seattle is a food and arts festival held every year at Seattle Center, and I have often performed at this event over the past thirty years. The stage crews have been all be around for that length of time, so I get to work with the same bunch of great engineers and stage managers who have made these shows successful and easy.

I arrived at about 11:30 AM with the few items that I actually needed for this gig: my guitar, my pedalboard, and a bag with a few cables and change of clothes. Each stage at this event is equipped with rented backline equipment including a drum set, bass amp, guitar amp, keyboard stand and amp, and so on. It makes the changeover between bands very easy, and allows us to travel pretty light. My equipment was driven to the stage in a Gator (basically a 4WD golf cart with a small pickup bed), and I got to ride along, doing my best parade queen wave as we wove through the crowd.

The Dudley Manlove Quartet performed first, charging through a high-energy set. I was particularly delighted that we played “Night Fever” by the Bee Gees, as it got everyone up and dancing. Disco music allows people to pretend they’re making fun of disco dancing, when in fact they are enjoying themselves doing it. We also delivered some classic rock hits to keep the crowd moving. Following a short break and wardrobe change, we returned to the stage as BowieVision and played another 45 minutes. We definitely had some Bowie fans in the crowd, as there were several people singing along who knew all the words.

The overall experience of working at these events is always fun. It’s a big festival with happy people enjoying food, beer, and fun energy. I did spot a booth selling elk burgers, which sounded really good, except it was so hot that day and I was already pretty overheated from playing two sets in the sun. Maybe I’ll get that elk burger next year.