Live Review: Inside Eric Johnson's Mesmerizing Live Sound at Edinburgh's Queen's Hall
A night of breathtaking musicianship, timeless songs, and masterful tone at Edinburgh's Queen's Hall.
Photo by Scott Anderson
The Queens Hall in Edinburgh was the perfect venue to see Eric Johnson. It has a capacity of around 800 seats, which means you will pretty much have a great seat anywhere. The acoustics were great for both the louder songs and the ballads.
Eric started the set off with the classic track "Righteous". This song was written in the 1980s, but the melody is so timeless it could have been written last week. It is a great blues rock tune with a killer shuffle drum beat. Listening to him and the band play, you could tell these were musicians who had logged up thousands of miles touring and playing gigs.
The next tune was a straight 8th blues rock tune called "SRV". What I loved about this song was, even if you were unfamiliar with it, the melody is so strong it is instantly memorable. Eric Johnson has a real talent for playing melodies that interact with the chords. This is incredibly hard to do because this outfit is a trio, which means he is playing the only chordal instrument. The third song of the set was "40 Mile Town". This laid-back ballad was the perfect vehicle for Eric's vocals. I was always a fan of his voice, which I felt was full of emotion and soul.
It's amazing to hear the band sound so full when there are only 3 musicians on stage. Legendary session drummer Tal Bergman was on the drums. He has had a successful career for decades, working with artists like Billy Idol, LL Cool J, Rod Stewart, Chaka Khan, and jazz heavyweight Joe Zawinul. Tal is an incredible drummer playing funk, rock, blues, and ballads to the highest degree. If you are not familiar with his work, check him out here: https://www.talbergman.com, as he is a true master of the groove. He also had one of the best shuffles I have ever heard!
The bassist was Daniel Kimbro, who was exceptionally talented. He could also play any genre well and played an incredibly tasteful and musical solo. I was surprised to see the sounds he was creating, as he was only using two pedals and a Fender amp!
I loved the version the band played of the famous Duke Ellington jazz song "Caravan". What is impressive about Johnson's playing is his ability to shift from jazz to rock at a moment's notice. His chord extensions show someone with an incredible knowledge of music. Another jazz standard, "Stella by Starlight", gave the audience a chance to hear the intricacies of Johnson's playing.
Photo by Scott Anderson
His use of vibrato on a clean guitar sound was nothing short of breathtaking.
After a few more songs, the band had a short intermission. At this point, if you wanted to identify the guitar players in the room, all you needed to do was to see the people who made their way to the stage to take a picture of Eric Johnson's pedal board! I'm not judging, as I took a picture myself! I was amazed to see there were very few pedals. It looked like a wah, some sort of flanger/tremolo, and a loop pedal, which he used to solo on top of later. This is a great lesson to remind people of how much of a player's tone is actually in their hands.
Eric Johnson started the second set with him playing a Maton acoustic/electric. It was just a duo of guitar and bass for "Resolution" and "Abelia", as they were the super mellow songs for the set. Johnson explained to the audience that the song "Chester" was an homage to legendary guitar player Chet Atkins. This song showed Eric's ability to finger pick, which was nothing short of outstanding.
Texas was a great old-school Blues track. His tone was pure magic on this song, and the slow tempo let the audience appreciate every note. I always felt the Blues was deceptively difficult to play authentically. It was easy to hear why Johnson excels in this genre.
Steve's Boogie was an audience favorite as the train-like drum beat drove the song into a hypnotic groove. It was impossible to listen to this tune without having a giant smile across your face.
It was at this point of the night that I noticed something interesting. The audience was from multiple generations. If I had to guess, I would say the younger people had discovered Johnson on YouTube and wanted to see him live. There were clearly older hardcore fans that I saw wait at the stage after the show hoping to get an old vinyl record signed.
The other interesting thing was, I rarely saw people taking their phones out to take pictures/video during the show. This was awesome because it felt like everyone was in the moment enjoying the music as it happened.
After a few more tunes, the show was over. Johnson returned for two more songs as an encore. In a time when so many bands are playing with backing tracks, it is great to see 3 world-class musicians play their instruments at a level that is rarely seen today. If you are not super familiar with Eric Johnson, please check him out, as I feel he is a true living master guitar player.
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About Magesh Magesh
Magesh is a musician and producer who has worked with Rihanna, Lionel Richie, Ricky Martin, Chris Brown, The Pussy Cat Dolls, Nelly Furtado, and Vernon Reid of Living Colour.
He released an instructional drumming DVD called "Unique Beats" where he mixed the drum kit with electronics and Indian hand percussion. He recently moved from Australia to the UK to explore new musical opportunities.
Website: mageshdrumteacher.co.uk
Contact Magesh Magesh at magesh.magesh7@gmail.com
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