Back on 12.20.09 I did at gig at the Kennedy Center here in DC with local singer-songwriter Laura Tsaggaris.  The gig was the night after Snowpocalypse #1 here in Washington, & I had to load out my guitars & Vox AC30 (60 lbs!) over/through a 5-foot snowdrift from my rehearsal space.  Yikes.  Arrived unscathed, though, & had a great set with Laura & Co.;  the band that night was Laura on vox & guitar, me, Eric Shimelonis on bass, Phil Carluzzo on piano, & the always-killer Paul Garisto on drums.  He used his ’57 Ludwig kit, which is flat out one of the best sounding drumsets I’ve ever heard.  Plus, it’s black.

Couple of shots here of the view from the stage, including a few of how they mic’ed up the Vox, Laura’s Princeton Reverb, & the great, gigantor Steinway (pair of AKG C414’s).  One SM57 on each amp, & I thought it was kind of interesting how he went off axis with both, without even checking the on-axis sound.  I asked the FOH engineer about it & he basically said, “Always sounds better.”  My default is usually straight on-axis, aimed right where the dust cover meets the cone.  I’ll have to try the off axis thing & A/B the two next time I have a few minutes to dork out.

A great multi-camera video of the gig can be streamed here.  Face-melting guitar solo action starts around 28:00 in.