Yngwie's in a Mood. (Last night openi...

Last night we opened up for Yngwie Malmsteen. I pulled up to the club right on time at 6:30 p.m. All the guys in my band were standing out front. I walked up and the first thing my singer says to me is “Yngwie’s in a mood”. I just smiled and asked what was going on. What was going on was Yngwie wasn’t too happy about a vertical steel beam going up through the stage. The beam itself was pretty far stage left and not really that intrusive. Yngwie demanded that it be removed! The club owner tried to reason with Yngwie and tell him that it was a load bearing beam that could not be removed. Although Yngwie is a guitar virtuoso, he doesn’t have a real firm grip on a the integrity of a building. They said you could hear him yelling from the parking garage next store.

The club owner Judd, was standing out front talking to us. He was an extremely nice and gracious host. We weren’t permitted to enter the club until Yngwie was done with his soundcheck. There was an entrance way that we were permitted to unload our equipment into, so that was fine. George Lynch is opening most of the shows for Yngwie. Judd told us the reason he didn’t book Lynch was: (Now these are his words not mine) “One huge ego in the club at a time is enough”. Apparently from what Judd told us George Lynch acts very similar to Yngwie. He told us that Lynch and Yngwie can’t stand each other. I’m sure that’s making for an interesting tour for both of them.

At 7 p.m. we are all standing outside and Yngwie comes walking out. We just kind of looked at him but no one said a word to him. He climbed on his tour bus and we sent the drummer in to see if it was safe to enter the club. It was, so we loaded in and set up.

Yngwie’s soundman must have been seven feet tall. I’m not kidding. Before last night I had never seen a seven foot tall penis, now I can say that I have. We were scheduled to play an hour set, from 8:30 to 9:30. Yngwie was slated to take the stage at ten. The seven foot tall peen informed us in not so nice terms that we would be playing a half hour set, and there would be Hell to pay if we went over. We did a 58 second soundcheck and we were ready to go.

The doors opened at 8 p.m. and people started pouring in. For about five minutes I got a little nervous. Half a Heineken later I was calm and ready to rock. We trimmed our set to six songs and hit the stage at 8:30 to a really nice crowd. We made the most of the time we had. We were kicking some serious butt and having a great time doing it. The crowd was really receptive to us and seemed to be enjoying it almost as much as we were. The energy level always seems to be kicked up a notch when you are playing in front of a big crowd. WE HAD A BLAST!!!! The monitors were as bad as I’ve ever heard. My band is really vocal with a lot of harmonies. I think we were getting more bleed from the mains than we were hearing from the monitors. Fortunately, the songs we were doing we know extremely well. We finished at 9 p.m. to a full house and with a “Thank You, goodnight” we got off the stage and loaded out.

Yngwie’s singer was hanging out with our women and friends the whole time we were playing. He was a really cool guy! He loved our band and seemed to hit it off with our singer. As a matter of fact all the guys in Yngwie’s band were really grounded and nice guys. Other than the seven foot shlong, everybody was really cool and easy to work with. It was a great experience.

Yngwie took the stage at 10 p.m. and they opened with “Rising Force”. I have to say it was a little bit loose. The second song wasn’t any tighter. When they hit the third song (one off his new CD) they seemed to hit a groove. It was kind of funny.... you had Yngwie on one side and everybody else in the band on the other. After the third song Yngwie got on the mic to talk a bit. He scolded a fan for yelling out some song that he wanted to hear. Yngwie said “Patience is a virtue” to end the scolding. Yngwie was tearing up and down the neck and was a lot of fun to watch. He was a pretty good showman as well as his well documented guitar talent. He broke out an acoustic on a stand and did a beautiful solo with it. The guy is extremely talented and that solo was a testament to his ability. I stayed for about half the show and then headed to my favorite Irish Pub for a night cap.... or two, or three.

It was a great gig, and a great time. I could play one of those every night.

Yngwie's in a Mood. (Last night opening for Yngwie)