Just a couple of days ago, I returned home from lovely Frankfurt where I drank beer, ate sausages, conserved energy and talked too close to peoples faces just like the Germans do! It was great. I was there for Source Audio to show off the new line of pedals at Musikmesse, a stupidly massive international music instruments trade show.
I was parked in the Warwick booth and hitting the stage with Reeves Gabrels, an extremely proficient guitar player to say the least. He’s had quite a strong career thus far and it was an honor to be sharing the stage (little as it may have been) with someone as accomplished as he. He is best known as David Bowie’s guitar player of choice throughout the 90′s. Here is a quick video of him and I doing our thing for Source Audio:
There are a few more videos of our jams and a whole lot more to check out at the Source Audio Blog. Have a look!
So…Frankfurt was awesome. The city itself presented a stunning portrayal of old and modern side by side. I had the best beer of my life in the bar district of Sachsenhausen, a place you simply need to go when you visit (no matter how touristy it supposedly is). The beer in question, by the way, was a Franciscana…brewed by monks for an extra holy buzz.
The work side of the trip was spectacularly fun. Since we were performing as a part of the Warwick booth, I had four days to really hang out with some top-notch musicians. I had especially great hangs with Jean-Paul Bourrelly, Divinity Roxx of Beyonce’s band Suga Mama, DeWayne ‘Blackbyrd’ McKnight of P-Funk and Ryan Martinie of Mudvayne. Each and every one of them showed themselves to be kind, eloquent people with a sincere interest in thought provoking conversation.
On top of that was the always enjoyable sight of Bootsy Collins strutting his bad self back and forth and the moment when TM Stevens came strutting up to our stage to give me a glass full of Jager, insisting that lay down a tasty bass line for him. Amazing! I was more than happy to oblige.
The highlight of the week had to be jumping on-stage at the Warwick after party and shaking my tiny American ass in front of everyone for whom I was supposed to be on my BEST behavior (distributors, magazine editors, artists, etc). You can catch quick very glimpses of my shameless white guy moves in the mainpage video on Warwick’s website (bonus points for good footage of Frankfurt).
Fantastic music, terribly unhealthy food and unforgettable experiences. Great trip. The only thing missing was my lovely assistant to be there dancing to my music 
Big thanks goes out to Brett Gildersleeve for being a top-notch travel companion who actually managed to get me out to a Euro-club…and I liked it.
