I recently read a Pat Metheny Solo Guitar show review on the Jazz Guitar Chat Facebook group and asked the original poster – Warren Cobb – if he wouldn’t mind me adding it here. Warren graciously agreed and so here it is. His review got me all excited to see Pat’s current tour and I am hoping he gets to Montreal sooner than later. Enjoy Warren’s review!
But first…
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And now, onto Warren’s review…
Show: Pat Metheny – Lexington Opera House in Lexington, KY – April 1st, 2024
I just saw Pat Metheny this week. What a beast. He hadn’t been to my city in 30 years and I missed him the last time, so this was a bucket list item for me.
This tour, he’s solo. Kind of. Solo as in he’s the only one on stage. I figured he might use a looper. But no, he used three.
The first hour or so focused mainly on acoustic guitar. Classical strings, baritone guitar, the “Picasso” guitar which I think of as sort of a harp guitar (42 strings). All tuned in a Pat M tuning. He showed how incredibly impeccable and musically tasteful his fingerstyle chops are on virtually any stringed instrument no matter how its strung or what tuning its in.
Then he moved to electrics of various types. Headed more into the kind of jazz he’s been known for. Using the other guitars on stage to build a bass and rhythm pad and then soloing over that. His looper skills were equally as impressive.
Then came the big wow. He ended the show with a combination of electric guitars with the final one being a midi guitar that was tied into a roughly 15 foot long set of three shelving units. Each unit with three shelves. These shelves were filled with handheld percussion instruments that you might see in a 4th grade music room. Xylophones, marimbas, spoons, shakers, etc. All at once, they all began activating as well as being lit up based on his midi guitar strings and what he played. The lights of course were also timed to the music.
Several of the guitars he used were covered in a black cloth or sheet. Just like a magician would do, throughout the performance he would unveil one after another and add it to the mix of sounds he was making.
It honestly was mind blowing. I don’t know of too many guitar players worldwide that can totally captivate an audience for over two hours and elicit hooping, hollering, and multiple standing ovations.
If he’s in your area, go see him. It would have been worth three times what I paid for my tickets to have that experience. Cheers!
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Warren Cobb graduated with a BA in music from the University of Kentucky and has had a 30 plus year career playing guitar while singing lead in every genre. Not only is he an executive producer – along with his wife – of the popular radio show Overtones LIVE out of Lexington, KY and Nashville, TN, he is also a partner in the Dreamland Entertainment Group out of Nashville as well as The Scribe TV Network.
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