I had a great time at the Gathering on Saturday; I came down from
Harrisburg with my date. Nothing like bringing somebody to their
first Gathering. She loved it! Before it even started, she wanted
to know who the artist was being played over the PA. As soon as she
found out it was Richard Pinhas, she said she was coming back for
that show! And this is somebody who is really new to the whole
genre. Such a cool crowd -- some hippies, some couples, some
students...all there to take in a unique experience.

I have to agree with soma that the stage layout seemed to block a lot
of the "action" to those of us sitting on the right side. Perhaps it
would have been better to put Jeff Pearce on the other side of the
stage and have him more sideways to the audience (like a classical
pianist); he would have been facing Griffin & Fulton instead of
having his back to them for the collaborative encore. Also would
have moved the huge towering rack that Fulton played over and out of
the way of the projection screen. The visuals were still way cool,
though! Not being able to see much of Dave fiddling with the knobs
or Jeff's fingers on the guitar forced us to 'listen' more with our
ears, and less with our eyes, in a way. And that turned out to be a
good thing, actually.

Griffin & Fulton started, and it was interesting to watch the
contrast in their styles as they worked together. Both were
concentrating & focused; very intense. Mike worked his magic on the
laptop, Dave was frequently repatching cables, twiddling knobs on the
massive rack, playing on the keyboard. They produced a very
atmostpheric sound, starting with a quiet intro that eventually gave
way to a massive exploration. Full of textures, panning sounds back
& forth. At one point, I could really feel the subwoofer shaking
away! At some points, Mike would nod in response to what Dave did as
changes occurred. I'm a big fan of Dweller At The Threshold, and
seeing Dave interacting with somebody else was very interesting.

Next up was Jeff Pearce, and I was really looking forward to this, as
I unfortunately couldn't make his last Gathering performance. I was
really amazed at how little MIDI, if any, Jeff used to create his
deep, lush soundscapes. Mostly processing of the electric guitars,
from what I could tell, although there may be more going on than
that. My date even commented later on how full of a sound Jeff got
all by himself, and as Chuck commented, all 'live'. Quite a
revelation.

And there there was the Chapman Stick! Way cool to watch Jeff
working on that massive instrument. I hope to hear more of Jeff's
explorations on the Stick in the future, as there seems to me to be a
lot of potential there. Jeff talked a bit about most of numbers
between compositions, and most of them were from the new CD Bleed,
although I recognized one piece from Shores of Heaven. His sense of
humor was really funny, too.

As a guitarist myself, it was also very educational to see Jeff's use
of the knife! I even moved briefly to another seat to get a better
glimpse.

And I actually liked the fact that it was a little cool inside the
church....as it made my date snuggle up to me, I'm sure just for some
warmth! Heh! Judging from looking around, there were other couples
that were huddled together as well.

The best part of it all for me was the encore, when all three were on
stage. Here is where I really drifted off into that altered state
between consciousness and somewhere else. A great climax to a
wonderful show. A 'jam session' of sorts! It ended all too soon for
me, and before I knew it, we were back on the PA Turnpike in the
nighttime (thank goodness for Starbucks!). Got home just in time for
the Star's End radio show, and it was awesome to lay there listening
to the live performances all night.

There is nothing like a Gathering, and once again I'm left with that
special feeling that lingers on afterwards. Seeing things from a
different, rich perspective. Can't wait for the November shows!
Finally, Radio Massacre Int'l live! Whoo hooo! See you there.


Joe