I recently had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Eric Johnson and his trio live at the Paramount Theater in Denver. This was the “Classics: Present & Past” tour with long-time bassist Roscoe Beck and newer member, Tom Brechtlein, on drums. I’ve seen Eric quite a few times over the years, and he definitely did not disappoint–in many ways it was classic EJ, shredding away effortlessly with his signature tone & style. His energy, enthusiasm and musicianship were all apparent from the get go–you can tell he really loves to perform live. Unfortunately, the sound left much to be desired.

Let’s address the monkey in the room right off the bat–the sound sucked. About 2 minutes into the first number, I commented to a friend that it sounded like they didn’t even get a sound check. The band’s sound was a jumbled mess right from the start and you could hardly hear the vocals. Keep in mind that there were no openers, this is Eric Johnson’s trio (3 performers + auxiliary) and the Paramount is supposed to be a more than decent room to hear live music. The sound was so muddy from about 50-500Hz that everything in that range was indiscernible–the kick drum, toms, bass and even guitar at times. And this was the sound about two rows in front of the soundboard!

Roscoe Beck, who is actually a great bass player and has performed with Eric for years, was completely lost in the mix. Upon careful inspection of his rig at set break it seemed the problem might have been that the bass “sound” was being mic’d by a kick drum mic about 4″ away from the bass cabinet. I have no explanation for this. Bass usually goes direct in any live setting, unless the particular player is a real stickler for some type of sound that they are trying to hear. In that particular case the sound guy should still be blending the direct signal with the live one for clarity. In lieu of the overall muddiness, I’m surprised that they would use any of the live mic at all. However, it seemed like the only bass input to the board was that live kick mic, which was likely picking up all the stage rumbles, noise and mud in addition to the inaudible bass notes. Imagine watching a guitar trio and not being able to hear the bass–there was no context for any of the more complex changes in songs and absolutely no foundation to anchor EJ when phrasing melodies and notes during solos. Yeah, I know most of the tunes, so the bass was in my head, but seriously! It really blew my mind that the sound guys could be that inept.

The drums were mixed equally as bad. The kick drum sounded like it would at 50 cent show–a total hip hop mix for a jazz-rock-country genre? Between that and the floor tom, which rumbled like wind through a microphone, all you could hear was the snare for the most part. Truth be told, I’m not a huge fan of Tom Brechtlein. Although he had decent meter his playing was boring–there were too many eighth and sixteenth ride cymbal patterns, he was oddly kicking his hi-hat in double time (which is just weird) and his phrasing had almost no poly-rhythm whatsoever. I’m really surprised that Eric used him on this tour, but I guess that Tommy Taylor was already committed to something else on that date. At any rate, that’s no excuse for muddy drums. This was only a trio performing; it’s not that complicated to mix three people so you can actually hear them. If nothing else Mr. Soundguy, try turning the overall volume down a notch until you can hear it clearly, perhaps?

Another thing that I noticed was just how muddy Eric’s rig sounded. This was the biggest surprise of all because if you know Eric Johnson’s sound, this guy is ALL about the tones. In all the times I’ve seen Eric (dating back to 1990) I’ve never heard a muddier guitar sound from him. I did notice that he was using a newer “thinline” Stratocaster, that is his signature model from Fender. It is likely that the woody semi-hollow tone is a little thicker of a sound than his regular ’59 Strats, but honestly that was the clearest guitar tone that he had all night. At one point he pulled out a Les Paul standard and it sounded like the bass EQ was completely over driven. Everything he played from the D-string on down was almost inaudible. I was beside myself.

Interestingly, while I was really excited at the idea of hearing the pure “trio” sound, they brought a pretty decent auxiliary player with them who was adept on guitar (I’m so jealous that he literally gets to see and hear exactly how EJ gets his signature guitar sound). He also played keys, bass, drums and sang on a number as well. Of course, had I been able to hear the keys, it might have provided more context to what he was actually doing, but I digress…suffice to say other than his guitar, which was the most audible instrument on the stage, everything else he did was muddied up like the rest of the band.

It’s really too bad that the lack of good sound had to over shadow what was otherwise a fun show. The band performed two sets, which seems like a luxury these days. I love multiple sets because it really is like two different shows and gives the players ample time to warm up. Even with the muddy mix, you could still hear Eric shredding away when he clicked on his trademark violin-sounding Hendrix overdrive, and once he got warmed up he really played some amazing runs. His soloing style is so musical and unique that it’s a real treat to sit back and listen to him go off. His clean tones were clearer overall, so that helped identify most tunes right away and clean up the sound somewhat. Again, if you were paying attention, you could generally see and hear what Eric was doing; however, the muddy sound really detracted from just about everything, from solos to vocals to entire songs.

Most of the material performed at the show came from his 1986 debut release, Tones, and the follow up, Ah Via Musicom, in 1990. This was great for me personally, as those albums were the ones that introduced me to Eric in the first place. There were a lot of great memories from those songs that really brought me back a few years! Of note, they performed Friends, Trademark, Soulful Terrain (which was awesome to hear after all this time), Desert Rose, Cliffs of Dover and the all-time favorite rock jam, Zap. There were a couple tunes that were cool surprises, like the Hendrix cover of “Driftin'”. I don’t know if Eric had performed this on a more recent album or just decided to perform it for the show because he’s such a big Hendrix fan. He also did “Spanish Castle Magic” for the 2nd encore, which was a hit. The Coltrane “Impressions” cover was jazzed up nicely; the aux guitarist had some nice input on that one, but it was hard to hear over the mud. Eric opened up the 2nd set entirely acoustic for about 5-6 songs; his solo acapella acoustic song “Black Water Side” was a hit for sure. The most obscure pick was a cover of “Down Here on the Ground”; I have never heard the original, but his version was quite the departure from George Benson’s version. Overall the selection of songs was a nice treat and a nice retrospective of Eric’s career.

As the reader can probably tell, I have mixed emotions about the show. On the one hand, as a guitarist, getting the chance to see Eric Johnson perform live is extra special. He is a huge influence of mine and a wonderful addition to the guitar virtuoso lexicon in general. His playing is one of a kind and it’s fun to try and glean some of his tricks and phrases while he performs. On the other hand, what the actual f@#k was up with the sound? As concert patrons, we pay good money to see these productions and it sucks when the main ingredient–the SOUND–is jacked up. When the performer is literally all about TONES and SOUND, it just seems to be grossly negligent to not provide the correct sound FOH. So listen up Paramount Theater–get your sound guys in-line, get new ones, or go back to hosting movies. At this point, you guys look completely inept in the sound department and it really begs the question for me as to whether or not I’ll visit the venue again. Eric, when/if you visit Denver in the future, please choose a different venue–the Paramount did not do you justice!