Nope.
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Paul McCartney?

I met him one morning around 2004, as I was going to Sam Ash, which used to be on Sunset & Laurel Canyon, as I was walking in and he was walking out of Peet's Coffee. I was so stunned that I couldn't say anything other than "Good Morning", which he smiled and said the same back to me.

My guitar tech and luthier builds guitars and basses out of old cigar boxes and calls them Cig-Fiddles. Long story short, my friendship with Johnny Depp led him to purchase Cig-Fiddles for Steven Tyler and, you guessed it, Paul McCartney, who used one on the 12-12-12 concert, SNL the same week (with Joe Walsh performing live with him) and in Dave Grohl's movie, "Sound City". My tech was on the set and said that he wasn't as bad as Chris Farley on SNL when meeting Paul, but it was close.

About 10 years ago, I was walking my dogs on our daily 3.5 mile walk and heard the end of "Tax Man" loud and clear, then "Live and Let Die", when it hit me that it was McCartney and the guys doing soundcheck at the Hollywood Bowl, which is about a 10 minute walk from my home. I knew Rusty, his guitarist for years on end because he was "around" town and was in a great band called Ednaswap, which was produced by Dave Jordan, the same guy that produced the first two Alice In Chains CD's (and has gone on to become one of the most sought after Music Supervisors in the business and has done a majority of the Marvel Films). Rusty's always said that Paul is a gem. I've had other opportunities to meet him but quite honestly, I just wouldn't have anything to say.

When I was invited to Les Paul's 75th birthday, I didn't have much to say to him, either, but we jammed for a bit, which was awesome and etched in my mind forever.
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I think that this is part of getting older. When I was younger I could go see 5+ bands play at a show in a night and enjoy the entire thing.

Now if there are more than 2 bands, I'm probably not going, or showing up really late. Even then, I'm usually ready to head home halfway through the headliners act.
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I've always been that way. I greatly prefer a well crafted studio recording, which is essentially a picture in time, to seeing the same band try to pull it off live.

There have been very few concerts in which I've walked away being not only impressed but surprised because most artists just can't replicate their albums live due to drugs, alcohol or the fact that they didn't even play on their album because they were too incompetent in a studio setting.

So for the most part, concerts fall into three distinct categories for me: Those that suck ass, those that meet my expectations and those that exceed them

Unfortunately, I can only think of a few concerts in which my expectations were exceeded and they were generally from artists that I don't necessarily follow, such as Lenny Kravitz, who put on the most awesome rock concert of all rock concerts at the Forum in 1997. I am still blown away by his performance, the virtuosity of the band members, the stage show and of course, Lenny, who was an all out fucking bad ass performer who completely exceeded my expectations, especially given that his albums are just so sterile sounding to my ears.
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I'm more into metal, and so I appreciate the rawness of the live sound.

Funny enough, probably the best live show I ever saw was Tori Amos. (took the wife for her birthday). Just amazing. Had a string quartet playing with her, and they did one number that was every bit as heavy as any metal show I've attended.

Not far behind was Helmet, who I didn't care for that much on their albums, but they were amazing live both times I saw them.
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You probably know this already since you've been to St. Pete. We had a world famous restaurant called the Kapok Tree in Safety Harbor, it opened in 1958 and by late 80's had annual sales of $10 million. The 70's was the peak years and they would serve up to 4,000 people a day. They had beautiful grounds and gardens to stroll. I only ate there once in '75, it wasn't expensive but when you live somewhere you don't do the tourist things. By 1991 I believe owners died and other factors the place closed.

It has been been somewhat preserved and part of the building is used for weddings and banquets and another section is a Sam Ash Store.

The gardens and dining during the restaurant years.





Current Sam Ash Store




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Well, that's the thing: Most "Metal", Active and Classic Rock players can play their asses off, whether it's Megadeth or Alter Bridge or Metallica, AIC, Dream Theater, Rush, Yes, Frampton, etc. and so on, so it would be a huge disappointment to see any of those acts suck ass live but 99.99% of the time, those acts "Meet" my expectations.

Same goes for guys like Satriani, Vai, Joe Bonamassa and Paul Gilbert. Eric Johnson, however, has always been hit or miss, whether it was seeing him "On" at the Uptown Theater back in the 80's or seeing him "Off" at the Hollywood Bowl in 1997. I knew his guitar tech, Jeff Tweedy (not the guy from Wilco), so I had passes, checked out Eric's rig (and massive pedal board) but Eric just wasn't in a good mood and it showed that night.

But even then, I'll take a bad performance over one with massive backing tracks, like Aerosmith. Tyler was always great but the rest of the band just hasn't been able to keep up since the 90's, which is why their live performances are drowned out by their backing tracks.

Joe Perry was always garbage, anyway. Whitford's the far better player. And Glen Ballard couldn't even get their drummer, Joey Kramer, to play in time in the studio so he replaced him with Steve Ferrone.
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My first visit there wasn't until 1995 and unfortunately, I did not see that particular music store.

The only store I visited was Thoroughbred Music, which I *think* was actually in Tampa (it's been a long, long time). It was a mail-order place as well but it was crushed by Guitar Center and Sam Ash shortly after I visited and went out of business.
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Here is my McCartney story- all good though.

Day of the show at Arrowhead, I got a call from a buddy that worked at 101 the Fox and got 6 free $125.00 tickets. So I took some friends. In the parking lot, the guys next to us rolled us a big Cheech and Chong joint- right when they started to light it- cops came by on a golf cart. The guy threw it down and the took off. It was untouched so we smoked it- high dollar stuff.

So when we got inside- I got free drinks and food from my friends for the tickets. Some drunk chicks in front of us bought a $35.00 program and then left it, so I got that for free.

Great show- Sir Paul still has it. So many hits. Amazing sound, lights and laser show. On the way out of the parking lot- some dude was standing in traffic with a giant cooler handing out ice-cold beers for free- so snagged one of those for the road.

Free ticket, joint, food, beer, program and then a good night beer. Did not spend a dime.
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Just remembered i did see Janes Addiction with Nine Inch Nails,i think it was at Starlight.Not the greatest sounding venue but i remember it being a good show. NIN had thundering bass i recall,but i guess their albums have some of that as well.
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Funny thing is, I'm a hardcore metalhead and when it comes to my music collection, I generally don't buy live albums, just studio albums. Unless I'm getting a boxed set that includes them or something.

I still love live shows, but I just don't do the big names anymore, I listen to them on CD. I absolutely love small clubs and mosh pits and metalcore craziness. I'll probably have to quit at some point since I'm almost 50 now but I'm gonna do it for as long as I'm physically able.
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Great post.
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Thanks for all the positive feedback on the live McCartney shows.

I don't know much about it, never been to one of his shows. The reason i asked is....had somebody tell me that his live show sucked. I was skeptical, but i figured this thread was a good way to see if i was right or not.
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He's done plenty of live performances for TV, from Saturday Night Live to the 12-12-12 concert to the Grammy's and so on and he's always great, IMO.

His band just kicks ass with Rusty, Abe Laboriel, jr (his dad is a MONSTER bass player that's been on 500+ albums) and Brian Ray (not the "Brian of Disappointment").

There's a fantastic interview on YouTube in which Lars Ulrich interviews Dave Grohl for about an hour or so.

I won't spoil it but they both have a story about Paul, which is awesome...
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Lars & Dave



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