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I managed to attend John's concert after all! :) And to top it all off, I went to Jeff Kollman's mini concert/clinic! How awesome is that?!

Yesterday morning, first thing I did was to call the axcess ticket hotline. I asked the pleasant operator what tickets are still available for the 
concert. I mentioned about Ro's unsuccessful attempt in buying John's tickets, and just for hopes, I requested her to double check its sold-out status. She came back surprised,

"There's 300 hundred more tickets"

I normally don't use this emoticon but....

-_-" !!!!!!!!!!

Ro inquired bout the tickets at 1U's booth. The operator was surprise too.

"I don't know why he said it was sold out"

That daft prick almost made me miss one heck of a concert. Which was exactly that. I was late for 10 minutes but then the rest was just......amazing. With just the one light shining on him at the centre of the stage, sitting on a chair with guitar at hand, John gave us very fine fingerpicking jazz licks indeed. Pity it only lasted an hour though.

And guess how large the audience was?

Less than 20.

Really disappointing. They say rock and roll saves lives but sometimes you gotta have a different perspective right?

Then headed to Bentley's as wanted to look up for pastor some drum kits. That's when I knew.....taaaadaaa....Jeff Kollman's in town! Ok, I admit, till then I haven't heard his stuff, but that name certainly rings a bell so I decided to part with my 30 ringgit.

Spend around 3 hours wandering Sungai Wang and all music stores in the vicinity. Was really bored and couldn't wait for 7.30 to arrive!

It did finally, so headed down to Planet Hollywood and for the next 2 hours was immersed in a world of blues,funk,jazz, this guy just incorporates so many genres into his music, it's hard to nail him to a particular type. His main reason was to showcase the Fender VG strat and it's amazing array of features. I've previously have already tried it and will attest to the fact that it's an awesome guitar. Price is RM8k++.

Sham was the opening act (He's Malaysia's Fender endorsee btw) and I was surprised by his versatility. In my mind, Sham was always in my image that typical malaysian rock guitarist who only knows to shred at 22 million notes per second which in other words = tasteless. But, this being the first time seeing him play live, I was pleasantly surprised by his tasteful playing and yeah, shredding. I noticed he had a few Hendrix's chops thrown in. Oh, and some jazz stuff too. All in all, good stuff, good stuff. Was really impressed by the drummer who suspiciously looked like Adam (of DragonRed). Good solid player. It's always comforting to know you have a solid drummer backing you up.

After that, Jeff took centre stage. Was amazing, which was what I expected save some minor defects such as the sound crew (Who repeatedly put Jeff's mike at mute even though he has repeatedly told them not to). And also the stupid and dumb questions some people ask Jeff during Q&A.

"Do they have maple trees in Canada?" (After Jeff told us about the maple fingerboard of the 
VG strat).

"Play some Shadows stuff" (Err, hello, this is a Jeff showcase ok? Not the Shadows. Unless Jeff does a tribute song to them, I consider it really rude to be demanding songs from artistes while they're on stage).

"How do you get feedback?" (Feedback is the loud humming sound from amplifiers heard regularly on heavy rock and stuff).

Basically, 80% of the questions asked that day was a waste of time. I wanted to ask a question too, but considering he didn't seem to noticed my meekly raised hand, I forgive him. I managed to ask him at the autograph session anyway, so that's cool.

And I really regretted not bringing a camera. I want one!! Come to think of it, I want a lot of things. Christmas is coming up, muahahahaha........

All in all, a day very well spend. Thank God for the opportunities.

Cheers.

Oh, and if anyone goes by 1U, say hi to the ticketing officer for me.