Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Jernej Vene
Venue: Orto Bar / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: March 31, 2010
Attendance: 70
Ticket price: €10.00
Once in a blue moon a miracle happens, and the guitar superpowers of the developed world pay us a more intimate visit than usual and teach a lesson in what it means to be a virtuoso, composer, arranger and producer, armed to the teeth with knowledge and talent. All in one person. Characters of unique fusion. Two one-of-a-kind players this time. Sculpted from head to toe, with filigree precision calibrated right under the skin. Fiery Brazilian Kiko Loureiro and level-headed Brit Guthrie Govan at Kitarijada 2010 in Ljubljana’s Orto Bar. Who? Well, Kiko Loureiro already visited Ljubljana three years ago, right after wrapping up a European tour with his home band, Brazilian progressive metallers Angra, who were opening for legendary British rockers U.F.O. back then. So in mid-March 2007 Kiko already showed off the charisma of his artistic nature at a guitar clinic in Ljubljana. This time he brought another grandmaster of the electric guitar along. Guthrie Govan, a versatile musician who first made a name for himself as a member of AOR/prog rock outfit Asia between 2000 and 2005, with whom he released the albums “Aura” (2001) and “Silent Nation” (2004).
Music gourmets knew what was in store at Orto Bar once these two guys hit the stage. But the turnout was way smaller than expected. Barely 70 people. Three years ago Kiko’s guitar clinic in the same spot drew a good 150. Back then you could hardly breathe in Orto Bar. This time it was pouring buckets, so the weather probably kept a few people at home. Anyway, after a showcase of young talents from the Muzikaviva music school, Kiko Loureiro was the first on stage. He showed up with a new Tagima guitar. The company made a special model for him. Kiko is now a Tagima endorser and no longer with ESP. Last year the guy put out his third solo studio album, “Fullblast”, featuring Mike Terrana (Tarja Turunen, Masterplan, Axel Rudi Pell, ex-Rage) on drums and Filipe Andreoli (Angra) on bass. For a good three quarters of an hour, Kiko played tunes from his solo studio debut “No Gravity” and the album “Universo Inverso”.
The guy’s fingers are running like they’ve been oiled to perfection. On stage he showed off his unique way of blending neoclassicism with the Latin melos that comes from the traditional music he grew up on (bossa nova). The crowd was especially curious about his tapping technique, where Kiko gave away plenty of secrets. People with eyes bulging out of their heads were just drooling while Kiko demonstrated the tapping. The only thing that bugged him a bit during the set was that his guitar was too quiet in the mix, which he accompanied with a few sharp glances toward the mixing desk to the right of the Orto Bar counter. Guthrie fared no better later on.
The master of extreme speeds, devoted to playing strictly by the book with proper schoolbook technique, where all four fingers of the left hand work as one like a machine gun firing, was followed by Guthrie Govan. Govan presented some material from his studio album “Erotic Cakes”. It was clear right away that Gutrhie is a guitarist cut from a different cloth. The position of his left-hand fingers is different. While soloing, his fingers lie much more sideways, and Guthrie doesn’t necessarily use his pinky for solos. That doesn’t mean he isn’t cosmically fast, like Kiko. Of course he is. He just gets there in a different way. And being fast doesn’t automatically earn you a spot in the world’s guitar elite. What matters most is that Guthrie came across with quite different expression and sonic effects. You can feel that Guthrie is a much more versatile type of guitarist and commands a much wider expressive range across the basic musical genres, if we can put it that way. Guthrie grew up on the sounds of Elvis first. Then he realized you can “solo over” chords while singing, when he first heard Hendrix, and his playing got more and more complex, yet layered at the same time. No wonder he lived in the Asia camp, where you have to know Steve Howe’s jazzy quirks while keeping your ears wide open, devoted to hunting down the most out-there sonic ideas through experimentation.
Guthrie vividly warned the audience that listening is the essence of it all. The old Achilles’ heel of many good guitarists who can’t loosen up and just grind “their thing” within the confines of schoolbook scales. That’s why they stay good, but never top-class musicians. And so, without knowing it, they go around in their own enchanted circle. In a warm and extremely witty way, Guthrie painted a picture of what the right approach to practicing and learning the guitar craft should be, the kind that leads to the making of every top guitarist. A guitarist as an artist, unique, with an expressive character all their own. Govan is a great lecturer. He revealed his guitar secrets to the audience so vividly that you simply couldn’t get tired of listening to or watching the guy. In the typical manner of a skilled, almost innate, handler of genuine English black humor.
Guthrie Govan wrapped up his “lecture” after about an hour, and then the most promising guitar students from the Muzikaviva music school gathered on stage. They couldn’t do without Kiko Loureiro and Guthrie Govan, so after 15 minutes of group jamming they closed this year’s Kitarijada. It was juicy and sinfully good. As always. So see you there next year too.
photos: Jernej Vene
Photo gallery
