My friend Chad had a great Japanese made Precision bass that wasn’t seeing any action and let me borrow it.  Because it hadn’t seen any play time in a while, the strings were dead and DIRTY.  You could feel the dirt sliding your finger over them.  The frets also had they fair share of grim and grit.  I took the strings off and set off brining this thing back to working condition.

The first thing was to clean the entire fret board.  I have a ritual that goes something like this:

1. I take #0000 steel whole to both the fret board and the frets.  This helps get all of that surface dirt of the board and really bring the shine back to the frets.
2. I use a Formula 65 cleanser that is basically an alcohol solution to go and really get all the dirt out of the board.  It brings it all to the surface, so I apply the cleanser to the whole board and then go back with a micro cloth and wipe all the dirt away.
3. Finally, I take the Formula 65 conditioner and apply it to the whole fret board.  I then go back with a paper towel and remove any excess.

I thought the lack of control would bother me, but I am not a fidgety bass player, I am a Ron Popeil “Set it and Forget It!” kind of bass player.  I might occasionally dial in a little more treble to bring out some brightness but that is about it.  So one tone knob was a joy.  I didn’t have to worry about tailoring the bass to me, I just had to tailor my playing to the bass.  It felt more expressive, more connected.  I am addicted.

First, parking in Broad Ripple is ridiculous.  I had to park at my buddies office which was like three blocks away from the venue.  I knew Broad Ripple was the place to be, but there is no where to park.  All of the parking lots have been converted into pay lots, which is a joke.

The next hurdle was Tyler being sick…       again.  He takes too much hippy meds and claims they work.  Apparently he was on something stronger this time around.  We started doing our soundcheck and he decided he needed to get some change so he walked off.  During the soundcheck.  This is bad.  Fortunately he showed up right at the end of our run-through song.

Now, if you don’t know Spin, then let me try and describe it.  Spin was formerly the Patio.  I never went to it in it’s former incarnation, so I can’t say how it has changed.  It isn’t a very large club and feels like it is maybe half the size of Birdy’s.  Being a small club, it is loud.  It is loud on stage, it is loud off-stage.  Spin has more monitors on stage than any stage I have seen so far, and unnecessarily so.  Four monitors spaced out would have been fine.  

Another problem with a small stage is being crammed next to Brian, our drummer.  All I heard besides myself was a crash symbol echoing in my ear the whole night.  I definitely need to invest in some good ear plugs or I will be deaf by 30.  No matter how many monitors there are, if you can’t space yourself out, there is no change to hear anything.  Fortunately, as a bassist, I heard what I needed to hear and trusted that the rest of the band was in the same place with me.

Fortunately, I don’t think most of the people coming out to these shows are super critical about the sound and just enjoy hearing music and doing some drinking.  Overall, it was a good show from what I heard.  We stayed for a couple songs from The Randies and they were a lot of fun to listen to.

Tyler Bender will be at Birdy’s this Friday so come on out.  You can see videos of the Spin show on Facebook, add Tyler Bender as a friend to see them and all of our videos from previous shows.

Return To Forever hasn’t played as a group for 25 years, which means during their hay day I wasn’t even living. However, thanks to my dad, who has introduced me to so many great artists from the 70′s including Mahavishnu Orchestra, King Crimson, Weather Report, Jaco Pastorious, etc., I was very familiar with the RTF catalog. We even went and saw Al Di Meola when he came to the Music Mill. This concert was only partly about seeing the group back together and rocking; this was my first opportunity to see one of the greatest bass players ever.

Stanley Clarke is a bass players bass player. Victor Wooten is amazing and a real showmen doing things that leave people asking “Is that even possible?” but a lot of it is flash. Stanley Clarke really draws out everything from whatever instrument he plays. He is a master of both the electric and the upright. He has unparalleled versatility when it comes to playing styles. He can lay down a blistering slap assault or play a super smooth melodic chord heavy line. Either way, he is stunning.

What really set this concert was the second act of the show. The group return to their roots and did an acoustic set. During the course of which, they each had a feature solo, each artist commanding his instrument, alone on the stage. Lenny White’s solo was interesting, but you had to be a drummer to get it. Chick proceeded to use a mallet to hit the piano strings with one hand, while playing with the other, apparently he is so amazingly good that traditional playing just doesn’t do it for him anymore. Al Di Meola is so fast, you need a high speed camera to capture all that he is doing. His solo on a classical guitar is the best guitar playing I have ever seen, and it will be almost impossible to top.

What Stanley did on his upright was mesmerizing. I think for most people, anytime you witness someone who is a true master of what they do, whether it is a painter or a soccer player, seeing someone who has such a deep understanding of how their skill works and being able to really utilize everything they can from it leaves you in awe. That is how good Stanley is. He made the instrument sing so effortlessly producing this amazing growl then retreating back to a subtle vibrato, it was incredible.

Seeing Return to Forever does what I think every concert should do; make you want to be a better musician. I know I will never be as good as Stanley Clarke, and I am ok with that. I just want to be able to play one of his solos or have some understanding about how he does what he does. Seeing him play makes me want to go home, grab my bass, and start practicing scales and putting chords under my fingers in hopes that one day I will be able to play the solo from ‘After the Cosmic Rain’

Tour Preview

I have already had the opportunity to start crafting my own lines, which is really exciting, yet challenging for me. If you made it out to the Birdy’s show you got to hear the two new songs which featured those lines. If you didn’t, check out the videos.

The band is made up of some quality players and some great guys. Jon, on lead guitar, has been a good friend of mine since I was in high school and was the reason I got to play with Tyler in the first place. Tyler is a gifted song writer and a great singer and has some killer stage presence. Brian is a bass players dream when it comes to drummers. He has great time and doesn’t overplay but grooves which makes writing bass parts even easier. Andy is like the swiss army knife of the band, playing rhythm guitar, keys, and singing backup vocals. There is a great vibe throughout the group both musically and off-stage.

I encourage everyone to check out the MySpace page and listen to some of the music, and keep an eye out here for upcoming shows.

If you are interested in getting a copy of the recently released “Chicago Sessions” leave a comment or shoot me an email and I will get one to you.

First, I have to thank Jon for putting my name out there to fill in on bass and Tyler actually having me come play.  Radio Radio is a great place and I would love to play there again if I could.  It is night and day from my last show at Doc’s up in Muncie.  I will say, though, it is a small stage.  Rude Buddah had their stuff up on stage and then we were setup in front of that, so it made for a tight squeeze.  Part of that is also the fact that we have five guys on stage, so no matter where we play there isn’t any walking room.

I think I played my best last night, show or rehearsal.  I didn’t miss any notes, felt confident, it was great.  I did have to glance at my notes once or twice but I would rather get it right than not remember what to play.  I could have been a little less conspicuous about having them up there, but oh well.

If you didn’t get to make it out, please go check out http://www.myspace.com/tylerbender and have a listen.  There are also some videos on there, and there might be some new ones soon, I am not sure.

Pictures (click image for larger view):

Also, I slacked on my Arrested Development a day, but I am back on it.  So here is Episode 2.  Just a quick note, the clip here is just a portion of the episode but you can watch the whole thing once it has finished.