last night was absolutely the biggest crock of shit i\'ve ever seen. really, nothing more than a complete waste of everyone\'s time. this thing was so
clearly fixed, it was disgusting.
there were 9 players in all. tim drew 4th. the competition was very good - much better than adrian saw at the drum-off district finals. the players brought a variety of styles to the table.. i thought tim\'s solo was very good, though i could tell he was nervous.. it wasn\'t the best tim solo you\'ll hear, but looking at it from the point of someone who had never seen tim play before, i think you\'d be floored.
other than tim, there were two standouts - the #2 and #3 players. #2 was thirty-something, and reminded me of tim in a lot of ways - very fast and technical, fingers ALL over the place.. really tore it up. #3 was a Berkley student, who has only been playing for 6 years. you\'d never know it though, this kid was GOOD. very impressive.
i think #2 \'scared\' me the most. as each player finished playing, i\'d say to myself \'ok, it\'s still between tim and #2\'..
rewind to the beginning of the show for a minute. before the competition started, they had a \'guest\' playing - a local guitarist who called himself \'the one-man orchestra\' or something like that.. he had this big rig with him, and he had all kinds of stuff (sequencers, etc) hooked up to his guitar, so he could basically play every instrument with his guitar. it was more novelty than anything - he wasn\'t very good. he played \'runnin down a dream\', sandwiched around a bunch of jams. apparently he\'s popular in the area, and is a \'guest\' every year at the district finals in Natick.
the guitarist who was representing the Natick store was young (19), and had a good 30-40 people with him.. he drew a late number (
. he was noticably \'tight\' with the one-man orchestra, sitting next to his roadie and chatting it up while he watched the other competitors..
the kid was VERY animated. i was watching him while the other competitors played, and looking at his reactions. after #2, #3, and tim, the kid kept throwing his head down and shaking it, like \'there\'s no way i\'m gonna win - they\'re clearly better than me\'.. kept getting up and pacing, like he was really nervous..
he played his solo in the 8th slot, and was good, but nothing special. definitely didn\'t do anything out of the ordinary, and was NOT better then #2, #3, or tim.. so when the last guy finished, i still had it between tim and #2.
they broke while the judges made their decision, and then called everyone back up to the stage. they announced everyone again, and then the winner, "it\'s actually #8 - Andrew J". at that moment, me, mike, joe, adrian, aruny, and dobs all had the exact same look on our faces. stunned. followed by \'BULLSHIT!\', etc... there is no way in HELL this kid deserved to win..
but as we were talking afterwards, everything started to come together. adrian was talking to the guy who MC\'d the drum-off in Natick, and he was saying how their \'friend\' was in the competition - this was his 6th year, and he \'usually wins the district\'. hmm. apparently the kid also walked by tim while the judges were making up their minds, and nervously said \'oooh, i overheard the judges saying there\'s a tie for first\'... then thinking back to how animated this kid was earlier in the evening, and i\'m convinced that it was completely FAKE. he knew he was winning. period.
so yeah, definitely a complete waste of time. i really feel bad for all the guitarists who actually had to drive a ways to get to this thing, for no good reason. i\'m tempted to go to the regionals in NYC just to see this kid FAIL miserably. ugh.
so that sucked.
