First off, we absolutely lucked out on seats - we bought them a week out from the show, and I was closer to Paul’s pedalboard than he was:
My neck was actually a little sore by the end of the night, and I only took five pictures because we were so close it felt rude. 
Gilbert is just amazing, to watch up close like that - really, it was striking how relaxed and effortless his technique looks. This is something I’ve been working on for a while now and seeing how damned smooth he was really I think highlighted how much speed is a product of efficiency and smoothness, and not vice versa.
Set was a lot of fun - he leaned heavily on his new album, WROC (pronounced “rock,” which is not what I would have expected, I’d been thinking of it like a radio station call signal), which essentially is a Victorian era ettiquite guide set to music. That makes no sense, but it was fun, and gave Paul a chance to rock out in a tricone hat for most of the night.
The rest of the set was medley-heavy, and honestly I think some of this stuff was compositionally as impressive as it was technically - he opened with a mash-up of songs from Get Off Of My Yard and Silence Followed By a Deafening Roar, which for me the writing on those albums was kind of a sweet spot for me, but would be dropping in bits and pieces of some other stuff (I caught “Scarified” and “Everyone Use Your God Damned Turn Signal” at points in the opener). A couple songs in he pulled out a nylon acousic-electric, and after a chorus of “To Be With You” launched into another free-wheeling medley which amongst a whole bunch of other stuff featured an insane reworked acoustic rendition of “Technical Difficulties” which I’d love to hear a recording of that or see some good footage because it was just cool as hell - I just started cracking up, more or less for sheer joy, once I realized what he was doing.
Oddly, Gilbert’s rhythm playing was a little loose here and there and towards the end of the night there were a few points where, had I not been sloppier myself, might be inclined to use that word. His lead playing never really suffered though.
Beyond that, Steve’s a super nice guy and I’ve now met two of you and you’ve both been great. We spent a long time talking about, well, a lot about music, but also about how refreshing it is that this place is almost entirely ego-free and we really all do see to be here just to talk, learn, and all become better players.
Really fun night, Probably even wort the midnight bedtime on a work night.
, on which we witnessed an absolute clinic last night.