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Question of the Month: Onstage Bumbles

Question of the Month: Onstage Bumbles

Guest Picker - Gina Gleason of Baroness

Photo of Gina Gleason by Emilio Herce

What is the most embarrassing moment you’ve experienced on stage?

A: One of my most embarrassing stage moments was during my time playing guitar for Michael Jackson: ONE by Cirque du Soleil. I remember feeling very confident as I ran across the stage to reach the top of a large multi-tiered light-up set piece. I jumped to the first step fine and then tripped over my own feet, sending myself (and worse yet, my guitar) flying face and fretboard-first into the next two huge steps. I’ll never forget the sound of my open strings clanging and feeding back. As I crawled my way to the top of my destination to finish the song, I felt a cold, oily surge rushing down the front of my shin. At the end of the show, I had to peel my costume pieces away from the river of then-dried blood that encased my leg. I jumped in my car to head to urgent care and received 17 stitches to the front of my shin. I guess I was running a little too hard that night!


Current obsession: The double-edged sword of music obsession is that, as your passion for consuming music heightens, you are no longer capable of being a passive listener or casual fan! It’s fun to begin to pay attention to things like the air between cymbal crashes, but your ability to let music just play in the background without having an active role in the experience begins to diminish.

Brett Petrusek - PG's Director of Advertising

Brett Petrusek onstage with his band, Fuzzrd.

A: Circa 2015, my former band was slotted on a festival-style show at Full Throttle Saloon in Sturgis. On the first guitar switch, a very green tech handed me my Les Paul perfectly tuned, but one half-step sharp! Two songs later, a nasty storm rolled in and blew two backline Marshall stacks over, nearly killing our bass player. I’m not sure if it was embarrassing or just plain horrible. We dusted off and finished our set.

Current obsession: Having been raised on 100-watt Marshalls, I’ve always snubbed my nose at amp simulation, but lately, I’ve been experimenting with blending plugins and big amps in the studio. Neural DSP has been my go-to. I really like the way they sound, and more importantly, feel, for big rock and higher-gain tones. Learning to trust your ears is a good thing: If it sounds good, it is good.

Ted Drozdowski - PG Editorial Director 

Ted Drozdowski

A: In 2011, I was playing a post-Deep Blues Festival gig at a dive bar called Big V’s in Saint Paul, Minnesota. I’d walked bars hundreds of times, and always made it a point to suss out obstacles before the show. During the first number, I’m on the bar and suddenly a drunk throws her head and shoulders on the bar exactly where I’m about to put down my raised foot. Instinctually, I pulled up to avoid her, and a rusty metal ceiling fan like the propeller of a Cessna caught me right above the eyes. I staggered, but kept playing all the way from the bar to the restroom, where I saw I’d been sliced to the (exposed) bone. I still kept playing. After all, there were paying patrons! At one point, a local promoter ran to a nearby 24-hour CVS for bandages, and he came up onstage to try to tape the wound while I played. No luck. When this photo (below) was taken, I’d gone outside, where Mississippi bluesman T-Model Ford was watching the show from the open door of a van, and I grabbed his Jack Daniel’s bottle to play some slide. An hour later, after the gig, I sold merch, packed up, and then went to the hospital. I have a scar.

Ted Drozdowski

Current obsession: Never walking into another ceiling fan!

Chris Reichl - Reader of the Month

Chris Reichl

A: It so happened that as we were setting up, we forgot the important rule of setting up a stage PA. If I remember correctly, it was that the amps weren’t on the same circuit as the PA was, so as a result, as I would approach the microphone to sing, I would get zapped. I would also get zapped while playing the guitar if I was making contact with the microphone.

Current obsession: I wouldn’t necessarily call it an obsession, but I tend to listen to Pandora a lot, mostly on a progressive rock station. Recently I expanded my playlist to include guitarists like David Gilmour’s solo work, Jeff Beck, Eric Johnson, and some Allan Holdsworth when he was with the band U.K. Also, I’ve been trying to play more guitar, as in, just play, without overthinking it.

The Spirit Fall trio: drummer Brian Blade (right) and saxophonist Chris Potter (center) joined Patitucci (left) for a single day at The Bunker. “Those guys are scary. It almost puts pressure on me, how good they are, because they get it really fast,” says Patitucci.

Photo by Sachi Sato

Legendary bassist John Patitucci continues to explore the sound of a chord-less trio that balances melodicism with boundless harmonic freedom—and shares lessons he learned from his mentors Chick Corea and Wayne Shorter.

In 1959, Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue and John Coltrane’s Giant Stepstwo of the most influential albums in jazz history—were recorded. It’s somewhat poetic that four-time Grammy-winning jazz bass icon John Patitucci was born that same year. In addition to a storied career as a bandleader, Patitucci cemented his legacy through his lengthy association with two giants of jazz: keyboardist Chick Corea, with whom Patitucci enjoyed a 10-year tenure as an original member of his Elektric and Akoustic bands, and saxophonist Wayne Shorter’s quartet, of which he was a core member for 20 years. Patitucci has also worked with a who’s who of jazz elites like Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Dizzy Gillespie, and Michael Brecker.

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With authentic stage-class Katana amp sounds, wireless music streaming, and advanced spatial technology, the KATANA:GO is designed to offer a premium sound experience without the need for amps or pedals.

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In our third installment with Santa Cruz Guitar Company founder Richard Hoover, the master luthier shows PG's John Bohlinger how his team of builders assemble and construct guitars like a chef preparing food pairings. Hoover explains that the finer details like binding, headstock size and shape, internal bracing, and adhesives are critical players in shaping an instrument's sound. Finally, Richard explains how SCGC uses every inch of wood for making acoustic guitars or outside ventures like surfboards and art.

We know Horsegirl as a band of musicians, but their friendships will always come before the music. From left to right: Nora Cheng, drummer Gigi Reece, and Penelope Lowenstein.

Photo by Ruby Faye

The Chicago-via-New York trio of best friends reinterpret the best bits of college-rock and ’90s indie on their new record, Phonetics On and On.

Horsegirl guitarists Nora Cheng and Penelope Lowenstein are back in their hometown of Chicago during winter break from New York University, where they share an apartment with drummer Gigi Reece. They’re both in the middle of writing papers. Cheng is working on one about Buckminster Fuller for a city planning class, and Lowenstein is untangling Austrian writer Ingeborg Bachmann’s short story, “Three Paths to the Lake.”

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