Alright, you all know I live in Nancy, at least those who have been here long enough and have been paying attention to all my babbling.
Paul is playing in my city.

I'll go to the show. I'll do my duty to beg for a Racer X album, though I'll do it politely and without insisting too much since I'm starting to feel we're beating a dead horse. I'll also hope to hear whatever's left from the glorious Racer X days in Paul's repertoire. And I'll try to get my copies of Second Heat and Live : Extreme Volume signed, after all, no matter what direction Paul has taken in his career, he is still with Bruce one of the men who put the shred on these records, and I still want his signature.

If anyone wants me to ask, say, or do something that doesn't involve putting a gun to his head and demanding a new Racer X album, since I'm already going to do that, lemme know !

Ask him to play more string skipping solos!! I all his string skipping stuff he's done, especially the kind of stuff he used to play back in the IR 1 DVD and live.

If you could ask him if there's plans for a Toronto show if it hasn't been posted by the time the date comes, that'd be wonderful.

If you could ask him if there's plans for a Toronto show if it hasn't been posted by the time the date comes, that'd be wonderful.

Maybe ask him what he is thinking about taking jeff as a drummer with him on the next tour and let him sing a few racerx songs... i dont think that this will ever happen cause then they could do a racer x tour as well , but maybe this is not so super impossible.. and with a chance like 1:100000000 paul answers " hey cool idea i never thought about that !we just never made something because scott is with priest and juan with mars volta"

Show him your penis. Then ask him to play Scit Scat Wah.

Also, get me a signature

... if that helps.. DO IT !

Honestly, in my recent student years, I've actually done a couple of outrageous things, and one of them was running down the street stark naked. I find the idea of running stark naked on the stage with Paul and asking him to play Skit Skat Wah quite funny, but I think I'll pass this time .

I'll try to ask the questions though !

Wow. I didn't know you were chicken.

I'll do it if Jeff Martin says it's ok.

Feedback from the show :

Setlist (reconstructed) :

(I forgot the first song)
Manic Depression - Jimi Hendrix
You Don't Love Me Baby - Magic Sam
Games Without Frontiers - Peter Gabriel
(I forgot the title) - Genesis
You Don't Remember, I'll Never Forget - Yngwie Malmsteen
Living For The City - Stevie Wonder
Stay With Me - The Faces
Rocky Mountain Way - Joe Walsh
Red House - Jimi Hendrix

--------------------------------------------------------------

Personal review :

I was very happy to hear Paul play, and for completely free at the MAI, even though I'm not a student at that school. The band consisted of Paul and his wife Emi, and a bass player and a drummer who were both teachers at the MAI. The bass player also served duties as translator for Paul Gilbert to convey the informations given by Paul in french. He sucked. I'm lucky english is a language I understand because I doubt everyone in the audience understood all of what Paul said.

As you can see with the setlist, I was very sad nothing from the Racer X repertoire was played. Then again, the band had two teachers from the MAI, maybe they couldn't arrange to rehearse complex Racer X stuff with Paul, so they had to stick to playing famous songs from various famous musicians. The rendition of Yngwie Malmsteen's song was quite alright, and there was some tasty shred here and there which sounded sweet.

Regarding Paul's playing : the way he handles chords and arpeggios on a technical and theoretical point of view is quite impressive. I remember the way he changed the bass note of certain chords to create interesting ones such as the C major seventh flat 5, if I remember correctly. On the other hand, I'm still not convinced with Paul's concept of rythmn. The way he seems to want rythmn in absolutely everything he plays outlines even more his licks and the way he moves from one lick to the next. I can now clearly hear the beginning and end of every lick and it sounds a lot more robotic and broken in sequences, while I used to feel Paul's playing was a kind of flow, that doesn't have breaks or stops within itself. I remember someone from the audience I met later on in a bar somewhat agreed with me, so I'm thinking I'm maybe not the only one to feel that way... or maybe the dude was just politely agreeing with me in the bar, I don't know.

My conclusion on Paul's playing : I would love to have a new Racer X album, however I wonder if Paul's new love for rythmn is what is deterring him from making it happen. Does playing more rythmically exclude writing Racer X material ? I don't know, maybe he just doesn't like metal anymore I guess, maybe he is preserving his hearing. Can't Racer X be played a little less loud ? Not all metal musicians go deaf. I'm personally very sad to think that Racer X is done, I really hope there will be at least one world tour before putting the band to sleep.

Finally : I couldn't ask any questions. Paul was busy, many people wanted autographs, the crew proceeded to this very methodically and industrially. Someone steps in, takes a picture, gets his autograph, walks out, wash, rince, repeat. I was happy to get my Paul Gilbert autograph on my Racer X CDs, but I was kind of disappointed that it had to be done in such a methodical manner. It took away the human aspect of the whole thing. I guess Paul has many fans and he can't spend special time for each and everyone, but I don't know... it felt strange, it kind of takes away the whole point of getting an autograph.

Anyway, it was a good show, the band sounded great, there were cool jams, just sad Racer X seems like an old memory and that meeting with the fans seems like a task that has to be handled like a household chore.

edit : typos, and bad english ><

ctrl + F - penis

i am disappoint

Glad you had fun, though.

Jeez, that setlist :/

I'm starting to lose my faith - what happened

Look at this awesome setlist from back in the day:

Almost identical to the set from when I caught him on the GOOMY tour. I have a bootleg of that exact setlist. Sooooooooo goooooooooooooood.

Bootleg? I have the actual setlist hanging on my wall

Well, it was his solo TOUR, not a clinic/workshop tour. It's two different things.

This was a clinic too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQaPf10seUo

Yeah... Well, Paul has said that he doesn't want to play clinics with CDs from his music anymore. Although I would love to see him blast through Superheroes and Scarified, I understand him.

Just think about it, as if you were a musician doing a clinic: would you rather play with a CD on the background or with a real band, with real people?

Ah, I meant audio. But hot damn. 2 boxes of raisins sound fair?

Talking about his clinics...

Check out that lick at around 1:30 in this video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Vh-eKtK2SY