EBS was in Los Angeles last weekend for Bass Player Live. Here’s our impression of the show…
What a great weekend in LA! Even before Bass Player Live, we had the pleasure to hang out with our Swedish EBS artists in town, Bjorn Englen (Dio Disciples) and Marten Andersson (Lizzy Borden) and went to see some of our touring artists that happened to play in the area. First King Diamond with EBS Artist and bass player Pontus Egberg at a sold out Wiltern Theatre, then EBS Pedal Artist Billy Sheehan with the fabulous Winery Dogs at Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills! Truly an honor for us to work with such great artists, and a lucky co-incidence to be able to see them in LA.
Bass Player Live opened on Saturday at SIR Studios on Sunset Boulevard, in Hollywood. A perfect setting for a bass player’s come together, where some of the greatest bass players on the planet traded advice and chatted with all regular enthusiasts and students at the site. What a great community of shared love for the bass instrument in music! The same sense of camaraderie was shared between all the exhibitors representing many of the leading manufacturers of bass equipment, as well as some new brands that where welcomed to the business. If you ever have the chance to experience this great event, it is strongly recommended to come and feel the atmosphere. It’s a great source of digging into all kinds of gear and to learn from the greatest!
At the EBS booth, we showed the brand new Reidmar 750 amp (available in stores in Europe now, and very soon in USA for $699) as well as the new Black Label Studio Edition Pedals, along with a nice selection of amps and cabinets from our current program.
Saturday night ended with the Annual Bass Player Award show! First up was EBS Artist Alex Al that presented the Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously to Louis Johnson. Alex had put together an amazing band that helped honor the legacy of Louis hard hitting funk grooves with legendary bass players Andrew Gouche, Abraham Laboriel, ‘Ready’ Freddy Washington and Bill Dickens as guests.
Next up was non other than Metallica’s Rob Trujillo that handed a Lifetime Achievement Award to rock legend Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead. With the help from bass brother’s Dug Pinnick, Rex Brown, Marty O´Brien and Armand Sabal-Lecco, as well as guitarists Lita Ford, Mark Zavon and Ira Black, drummers Tommy Rickard and Brooks Wackerman with Evan Seinfeld and Whit Crane on vocals. They all tried to do justice to Lemmy’s music – which is not as easy as it seems at first sight, given the amount of energy that it requires – but they did their best.
Finally, Nathan East was honored with his Lifetime Achievement which he humbly received and in return played a stunningly beautiful set of music from his new solo album, along with top sessions musicians like Ray “Ghostbusters” Parker Jr, Tim Carmon, John Jr. Robinson, Michael Thompson, Gregg Phillinganes and David Paich. We all know music is well rooted in the East family, but just in case Nathan brought his brother James and 14 year old son Noah on stage too.
Sunday’s exhibition offered a clinic performance by EBS Artist Tal Wilkenfeld that brought her whole band and turned the clinic to a surprise “mini-gig” playing new music from her coming album! Between these great rockin tunes, she shared advices and answered questions from the audience about bass playing, song writing, etc. One advice she gave on how to develop the ability to sing and play the bass at the same time, was to ‘call your mom and have your sushi at the same time’, although a joke it certainly sounds like a challenge on an equal level. Tal has some shows coming up in Japan and Los Angeles where you will here more of the new stuff, and indicates the album will follow shortly as well, see www.talwilkenfeld.com for updates.
Some of the other EBS Aritsts and Pedal Artists that we met at Bass Player Live included: Sean Hurley (John Mayer), Steve Di Giorgio (Testament, Death DTA), Brett Simmons (Melissa Etheridge), Phil Chen (the Doors), Pete Griffin (Dr. John), Pancho Tomaselli (Philm), Brian Bromberg, Joel Whitley (Dr.Dre, Snoop etc), Branden Campbell (Neon Trees).
After we finished up day two, we rounded up by hanging out with our bass playing friend and CEO of American Seafoods Group, Bernt Bodal, who was part of the All-star line-up at the Rock’n Roll Fantasy Camp, who introduced us to several of the rock icons that was part of the show at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go. If you sign up for the next camp at www.rockcamp.com, EBS Artist Bjorn Englen will be one of the counselors for the coming up camp in February.
Special thanks to the EBS additional crew: Jack, Rob and Michael Gustafsson, for gear: Tsunami Cables, SIR, Centerstaging, Lon Cohen Studio Rentals (all three carrying EBS amps), For the company while in town: Bjorn and Marten, Billy Sheehan & Winery Dogs, Pontus Egberg & King Diamond, Bernt Bodal, and a special thanks to our friend Sonny for coming all the way from Sweden to visit the show! Last but not least, Chris, Jeff and the whole Bass Player Live Crew!
To read bout how The EBS Classic 500 dominated at Sweden Rock you can here.
On behalf of EBS,
Ralf Bjurbo
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