Valencia, Spain with Nicolas and Etienne
I've just got back from playing 3 dates with the Nicolas Meier World Group as main support for Steve Vai on his Inviolate EU 2022 tour! Steve doesn't normally have support for his shows so this was a real honour, and I got to play both shows as a trio with the incredible percussionists Demi Garcia (Spain) and Etienne Brachet (France). I, very intimidatingly, shared the tour dates with other bass players Kuba Cywiński and Kevin Glasgow.
I've known Nicolas Meier for years, as we met in 2007 when I was studying (and he was lecturing) at the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford and he asked me to join his metal band Seven7, who we released 3 albums with. He spent a few years in Jeff Beck's band, and is on the Live In Tokyo 2014 DVD. He also has a prolific jazz/world/fusion solo career, including the album 'Infinity' with Jimmy Haslip on bass and Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, which was released on Steve Vai's label - hence the connection for the tour.
Onstage at the first show with each drummer was the first time I played through the songs with them - so there was genuine improvisation there as I had no idea what was going to happen! This is where doing your homework to know the songs inside out helps.
I was obsessed with Steve Vai for a while when I was starting out, and have always been a big fan since, so to be able to watch the show sidestage and be backstage with him wandering around and hearing his voice coming from the dressing room next door was a dream come true for me. If anyone has spotted my occasional 'circular fretless vibrato', now you know where that's come from. I also got to hang with Vai's bass player Philip Bynoe, who's such a cool guy, and we tried each others' basses out in Lille!
The dates I played were:
22 June 2022 - Splendid, Lille France (With Demi)
16 July 2022 - Jardin de Viveros, Valencia Spain (With Etienne)
19 July 2022 - Teatro Tivoli, Barcelona Spain (With Demi)
My 'tour rig' was fretless 6-string Carillion bass - Line 6 G50 wireless - Boss ME50-B multi-effects for compression (and delay in the solos) - Aguilar Tone Hammer preamp DI - Ashdown head and 15" cab (for stage monitoring).
What a wonderful experience and I'm thankful to have had the chance to play for such appreciative crowds.
Here's some footage I shot from the shows on my Zoom Q2n 4K:
Lille:
Valencia:
Barcelona (the last show of the tour so Vai drummer Jeremy Colson joined us for a solo!:
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