Paul Gilbert @ An Club, 20/10/08
Written by Jason Kaldis
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Monday evening in Athens and from 19:00 the crowd began to gather outside An Club in order to buy tickets but mainly in case they caught a glimpse of Paul Gilbert. Inside however 6 lucky fans enjoyed themselves even more since they had managed to secure VIP tickets which apart from the concert got them into a guitar seminar by the virtuoso himself. For these 6 people that Monday evening was even more special.
Paul was friendly and patient and in fact asked the people working in the venue to be as quiet as possible in order for him to deliver the course as best he could. Something which could have turned out to be a sham was a unique experience, since Paul treated it as an occasion to share his immense knowledge and help young guitarists.
As regards the show itself, we could easily say the same. An Club was almost full and at 22:00 Gilbert and his band bounded on to the stage with enthusiasm. Unfortunately certain technical problems deterred Theodore Ziras from opening the concert as it had been announced. It was a shame really since, apart from the fact that a lot of the audience wanted to see him perform it was also a chance to show Paul a prime example of Greek guitar talent. The setlist was mainly based on his two instrumental albums and even though there were only slight differences to the one he performed in Thessaloniki, unfortunately we didn’t get to enjoy Paul’s vocals on more that 3 songs, since he’s still recovering from a bad cold that he caught while on tour. Not that anyone complained. After all, the overwhelming majority of those there had come to it enjoy Gilbert’s guitar pyrotechnics rather than hear material from his stint with Mr. Big even though it had been announced that he would also be playing songs from that period of his career.
The band that accompanied Gilbert were all excellent, while Paul didn’t hog the spotlight and gave everyone on stage a chance to shine. Apart from bass player Craig Martini, who didn’t stop jumping around on the cramped stage while at the same time keeping up with Paul’s faster-than-light licks, and Emi Gilbert, whose capability on the keys was proved by her amazing piano solo on “Red House”, a special mention should be given to drummer Jeff Bowders whose exceptional drum solo was the icing on the cake, so to speak.
Overall the one and a half hour show went by like a breeze and with the last notes of “Long Live Rock” by the Who, one of the three songs featuring Gilbert’s vocals that we heard during the set, the dream show for the roughly 400 fans who showed up finished. Of course for a few lucky ones it was extended since Paul didn’t deny anyone an autograph or photo and thus many of the fans got their own personal souvenir of the night.
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