A shred of dignity (when buckethead comes to town)

We took in the Buckethead concert in Fort Wayne Wednesday night. While not overly familiar with his work, I figured it worth checking out since he was only 5 minutes from our house at the beautiful Clyde Theatre. I was not disappointed and we had a good time.

I think I actually stumbled onto his work years ago while listening to the David Gilmour station on Pandora one day. It was the ambient style that caught my ear. Since then I've discovered I perhaps knew more than I thought - his time with Guns N' Roses, the mysterious persona, his incredible shredding skills, and affiliations, etc.

On this night, there was no opening act and he played for 2 hours - with one 20-minute break - and it was just him on the one and only guitar he used all night! He had a floor-full of effects pedals and backing tracks, but nothing or no one else. It was quite amazing.

He did do some nunchuck moves, robotic dancing, and gave away a giant bag full of toys to the crowd. Towards the end of the show he also went along the edge of the stage and let people in the crowd actually play his guitar while he held it. Otherwise... it was flat out guitar slinging! He never said a single word the entire night! Just played metal, funk, power, progressive, ambient, avant-garde, and loud, Loud, LOUD guitar!!!

One thing that stuck out to me was how physically tall he was, and how stinking loooooong his fingers are! Egads, I swear his pinky finger is as long as my entire hand! No wonder he can do so much with the guitar. Of course I was also in awe of his long hair sticking out under the hood of his sweatshirt.

Anyway, I did feel a little awkward at times because of the whole gimmik-y aspect of his act. The mask, the bucket on his head, and the plethora of pedals that really drive his sound... I can see where music/guitar purists might be turned off by it. I consider myself of that stripe. Yet, at the same time, he has made a name for himself, and he DOES know how to work an axe! Plus, I kind of get the 'hiding behind a mask' thing. I understand he has some fear issues and whatnot... so I'm fine with all that. Like I said, it was fun. I'm glad we went.

Here are some pics off my phone from when we were up by the stage: