So we left yesterday morning and arrived at about 12 and did some things around Nashville. At about 6, we walked from out hotel over to the Ryman Auditorium to check out the merchandise, etc. As we were walking back to the hotel, I noticed a smaller man with long hair and a G3 thing around his neck. I did a double take and sure enough, it was Dave Larue staying at our hotel!
Anyways, the show started at about 7:20, and Paul Gilbert opened with "Get Out Of My Yard" and immediately broke into "Hurry Up". After that he played several songs from GOOMY, including "Rusty Old Boat", "Radiator", and "You Kids". Then he played some Racer X tunes, "Scarified" and "Skit Skat Wah", follwed by a Mr Big "To Be With You" interlude, and then one more song from GOOMY, which I forgot. Paul had good expression throughout, but he failed to look at the right side of the audience alot, where I was sitting. Also, from where I was sitting, I was having trouble hearing both Paul and Bruce in the mix. But still though, I was actually seeing Paul Gilbert in person!
After his set ended, there was a short intermission while Petrucci's stuff was being setup. During this time, I noticed that a few seats on the first row hadn't been occupied the whole time. What did I have to lose? So I walk up to the man sitting next to the unoccupied sears to ask if anyone was sitting there, and he said no. Bam! I had front row seats!
Anyways, JP came on stage, and wow 80, he has earned a whole new level of respect in my book. I was sitting RIGHT in front of him the whole time, and his tone was AMAZING, as was his playing. He's a great musician. Portnoy was stellar on the drums, and Dave Larue was equally as amazing. I snagged JP's setlist, and here are the songs he played, in order:
In my opinion, Mr. Petrucci was the best of this particular show (the others weren't far behind though). He interacted with the audience much more than you might see on the G3 Tokyo DVD or even the DT Score DVD.
Then Satriani did his set. He was jovial as always. I believe the songs were "War", "
Satch Boogie", "Flying In a Blue Dream", "Super Colossal", "Circles", "Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing", "Surfing With The Alien", "Always With You, Always With Me".
Of course the jam began on the outro of "Always With You, Always With Me". After this, they played "Foxy Lady", "Purple Haze", "Goin' Down", and "Jumpin' Jack Flash". Satch even whipped out a Les Paul, Paul brought out the drill, and JP brought out a rubber chicken (?). One of Joe's picks magically landed in front of me, despite his being on the opposite side of the stage.
After the show, I started talking to a few people, two of whom turned out to be rrhea and shredhead42 of the forums here. I was lucky enough to get a picture with Paul (and
Mark Tremonti, who was there watching) after the show. But remember how I said that Dave Larue had been at our hotel? Well, this morning, as I was going down the windowed elevator, I happened to see that Satch's bus was still parked out front. Right as I stepped out of the elevator, there was Joe himself standing in the lobby, looking VERY tired. He was still kind enough to let me get a picture with him.
Looks like Joe and I got up at the same time LOL
All in all, it was my first G3 experience, and I have to say, it was a great one. Sure there, were a few minor things, such as not being able to hear Paul that well, but still, the show was fantastic. They were selling autographed posters, T-shirts, CD's, DVD's, etc.
