As I'm stuck here at the airport in Phoenix on my way back to Houston, I wanted to post about 'The Ultimate Jem Experience' we had in LA over the week.
The grand and second place prize winners won round-trip tickets to LA, free Hotel and transportation, invitations to the Jem20th concert, NAMM passes, and a trip to the Mothership to watch Steve's band rehearse, get a studio tour, and have a lunch with Steve and the band at the Mothership.
Thursday - We arrived around 2PM at the Mothership studio in Hollywood. Initially we wanted to have a BBQ, but Steve suggested Indian food, so we ordered out. This was probably a good idea since Steve doesn't own a grill there.
We met on the studio floor in the control room as Steve, Billy, Dave, Jeremy, and Tony were finishing up their rehearsals. Tony and Billy had to leave for appointments, but the other guys stuck around. When they were done, Steve came into the control room while Thomas and crew moved out the gear to get prepared for the 20th Jem party. He sat down with us and talked about the recording gear and Mikey brought in EVO and FLO for everyone to pass around, play, and get pictures with. After about 45 minutes, he gave us a tour of inside the studio and explained his gear and setup. Thomas needed to move out the amps we retreated upstairs into the living room while Steve had a short meeting with Ruta.
Upstairs Mikey had out the white triple neck, purple heart guitar, fixed bridge Jem prototype, the mirror ball Universe, and the PAW carved guitar. Everyone was free to play, grope, fondle all the guitars they wanted. Steve returned after a few minutes and sat down on the couch with us and just started chatting, taking questions, etc. Mikey ordered the food and it took forever. Finally after 1 1/2 hours, the food order arrived and we fixed up our plates after a short description of each item from Steve, and went back to the living room. Steve was very interested in our opinions on his music - what we liked and what we didn't. In all we spent about 6 hours chatting and hanging out at the Mothership with Steve. Everyone enjoyed themselves and Steve really enjoyed taking a long deserved 6-hour break.
Saturday - The Jem 20th concert
We arrived at the Key club on time and got in with plenty of time before a local LA band (can't remember their name) started. Not my style of music, but they had a couple great songs. Next
Paul Gilbert did a set starting out with his doubleneck PGM. This was my first time seeing Paul play live and was very impressed. He's such a great character. Next Steve came out, and after a few songs was joined by the guitarist from Dragonforce. He was a shredder - talented, but got repetitive after a while. He has a great stage presence. Then Steve did songs with Joe and
Andy Timmons and eventually the entire group of guys came out along with the guitarist from 3 Doors Down. They jammed for at least 15 minutes and during this last song Steve brought out the 20th Jem with great applause. The guitar was stunning to see on stage and lit up Steve's face and arms green.
One of the many lighlights of the show (for Jemfest, anyway) is when Steve came out for his set, he talked about Jemfest. Kevan and I yelled out and Steve pointed to our group and said 'there you guys are!'. Another cool thing is the enormous Ibanez banner had Jemfest.com on it! How cool for us! We'll be sure to post pictures of it and possibly video of Steve's comments.
We left the show around 1:30AM and headed back to the hotel.
Everyone had a great time I hope we can do this again another year. We raised lots of money for MANF.
Thanks to everyone who entered the raffle. Thanks to Steve, Mikey, Ruta, all the folks at Hoshino USA, and Kevan for organizing this.
I'm still trying to absorb everything so I'm sure there's something I left out. I'll post more when I get some rest.
I'll post pictures and video when I get the chance!
Gabe
