July 9, 2010

I never got the chance to see Extreme live back in the day and unfortunately couldn’t make their ‘Take Us Alive’ tour in the UK last year. So when a live DVD was announced I was overjoyed!

Recorded live at the House of Blues in Boston August 2009 the ‘Take Us Alive’ DVD is brilliantly shot, shots from the crowd perspective give the sense of actually being and there are plenty close up shots Nuno to see what he is up to.

The sound is also immense, in fact the DVD was mixed and engineered by Bob St. John who has worked with Extreme since their self-titled debut album in 1989. Gery Cherone’s vocals are clear and his singing on top form, the drums and bass are tight and sound thunderous and Nuno’s guitar tone is huge and 100% Nuno.

The band storms through a set that mixes old favourites with new songs. When they opened up the show with Decadence Dance my rockometer went in to overload!

The setlist features:

Decadence Dance
Comfortably Dumb
Rest In Peace
It (‘s a Monster)
Star
Tell Me Something I Don’t Know
Medley: Kid Ego – Little Girls – Teacher’s Pet – Play With Me
Midnight Express
More Than Words
Ghost
Cupid’s Dead
Take Us Alive
Flight Of The Wounded Bumblebee
Get The Funk Out
Am I Ever Gonna Change
Hole Hearted

Nuno Bettencourt is one of my all time guitar heroes and he is on sublime form here, totally flawless with that arrogant swagger of his. The camera work allows you to get a great closeup view of his guitar powers. Showcase pieces like Midnight Express and Flight Of The Wounded Bumblebee are executed with breathtaking ease. He even has the cheek to pretend to be bored and yawn during the blazing ‘Play With Me’ Solo!

If you’re an Extreme fan this is a must buy, even though I never got to see them live the DVD captures the band’s infamous live performance and it’s a nice touch to see it was filmed in their home town where they built up that performing reputation all those years ago.

Buybuybuy!

April 9, 2010

Rihanna performing ‘Rockstar 101′ on American Idol

Great to see Nuno on a huge show like American Idol doing what he does best.

Ironically the only ‘Rockstar’ on that stage was Nuno himself

August 13, 2009

Thanks to Thomas, a student of mine, for giving me the heads up an old but amazing thread over on gearslutz.com where the producer Michael Wagner talks about the recording of Extreme‘s classic album, Pornograffitti and engineer Bob St. John talks about following albums!:

the solos are NOT composites, but were recorded and punched in ala the old linear method; it was rare to have the solo recorded and go back and fix a small piece (besides there were some days i was getting a reputation as “eraserhead” i don’t miss the old analog method that much it was just the way we worked. i wish i could say how MUCH time we spent on each part, but that is so obscured in my memory at this point; i know that to record the typical solo was about 4-5 hours of work. although i can’t remember exactly…i believe we spent a little more time on the rhythm tracks; although they were doubled.

as far as people slagging nuno…look, i worked with the guy from when he was 16. complicated? sometimes. gifted…more than anybody here could know. royal pain in the butt? you KNOW it. it’s hard to fall off that pedestal…even if you keep climbing back up on it yourself =) but…to sit in front of that guy in the studio…watch his mind (and fingers) work…has been something i’ve rarely seen. to me…it’s not about those rippin’ guitar solos…but about his innate sense of harmony and rhythm. i have yet to meet someone with that command. i lived through schizophonic (and like extreme III and IV, was listed as co-producer but nuno has a VERY large shadow to stand inside…and to be honest, the records are more a product of gary and nuno’s imagination than anybody’s…and that includes pornograffitti and extreme I).

and from a link withing that thread the actual settings for Nuno’s ADA preamp on that album

Here are the real settings:
Overdrive 1 : 4.0 dist
Overdrive 2 : 5.5 dist
Master Gain : 7.5 dist
Bass : 12
Mid : 6
Treb : 6
Pres : 12
Voicing : .tube
FX loop : off

From the ADA it went into the McIntosh 2100 (transistor) poweramp and from there into a vintage Marshall 4×12 cab with the original G12H inside. At that time I normally used Fostex M11RP ribbon mics and Countryman Lavalier mics through a John Hardy M1 to record guitar.

May 20, 2009

Cool and funny video with Nuno Bettencourt from Young Guitar last september:

August 12, 2008

The new Extreme album, ‘Saudades De Rock’ is out! In honour of this great event latest MasterThatRiff! is looking at the riff ‘Comfortably Dumb’ from the new album.