NBC: volume

[Steve Ahola]

Deb:

Maybe your little talk got through to Coco... LOL

When I've seen him in the past two years he hasn't seemed arrogant at
all. He played a free concert at the Todos Santos Park in downtown
Concord (CA) in June 2006 with maybe 1500 people in the audience and I
didn't see anyone leave because of the sound levels- the crowd ranged
from 1 year old to maybe 101 years old...

His drummer Randy Hayes certainly bangs the sh*t out of his drum set and
I think that Coco usually gives him a 10 minute solo near the end of the
last set.

IMO Coco is a real master of dynamics. One song he plays has him
"talking" on guitar (like his ex-boss Albert Collins); if you were to
cough you'd miss what he was "saying" it was so quiet.

There is more to it than just volume as measured on a sound meter.
Albert King used to play very loud, but there were dynamics to his
playing and his band's playing. And I would say the same about Buddy Guy
and Magic Slim.

However many of the guitarists who are more rock than blues will play
machine gun riffs at fully cranked volumes, which gets very tiring, at
least for me. The same old same old, over and over again... :(

Steve Ahola

P.S. I'm surprised that no one mentioned Walter Trout.

Deb Lubin wrote:
> That's very interesting.  I haven't gone to a Coco show in a long
> while, but maybe I'll try it again.  We had a conversation one time
> when he played Eli's in Oakland.  The place was relatively empty, and
> Coco was complaining about not getting gigs in SF, or not getting
> asked back to places he played once.  I mentioned that, perhaps, it
> was because he played too loud for the clientele and the club owners.
> He did NOT like that.  In fact, he cranked it up further.  Did he
> have a good night that night?  I'd have to say a resounding NO. Deb
> 
> 
> maxdog-blues-l@comcast.net wrote: -------------- Original message
> ---------------------- From: Deb Lubin
>> This is a "favorite" topic in the yahoo blues group in this area.
>> Maybe more musicians will read about it here and finally get it.
>> And yes, I do enjoy beating my head against the wall, proverbially.
>> 
>> 
>> I wouldn't have guessed Lucky either--I agree with Maxdog. Attitude
>> problems but not volume in my experience hearing Lucky (when he
>> shows up that is). My first guess was Joe Bonamassa; second guess
>> Bernard Allison (because of the wall of amps); third guess Coco
>> Montoya. Needless to say, the list can be quite long, especially in
>> a small club with low ceilings, etc. I could name a few more.
> 
> The first time I saw Coco he was outrageously loud. He and the
> soundman almost got into a fight because the soundman wouldn't crank
> it any further. I saw him a few months ago and he has toned down the
> volume considerably. -- Walter
> 
> 
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