A Moving Experience   June 19, 1997
Written by Rick Mascarini

We (my wife and I) traveled from Saratoga NY to Hartford CT during the afternoon thinking (no, knowing) that we could miss Robert’s performance. We arrived at 4:30PM with plenty of time to spare. Our tickets stated the show was to start at 7PM - I asked a parking attendant what time the gates opened - 5:30PM he told us. Enough time for a quick ride through Hartford to find a coffee shop. A bonus, Coffee and Bagels (with our favorite Hummus topping) fit the bill.

5:25PM back the Meadows Music Center and standing at the entrance we could hear Robert starting a ’Scape’ up. Gates opened and onward we went to our seats. About 12 rows back, dead center from the stage.

Robert is off to our left standing next to his guitar rig talking to a guitar tech for one of the other bands, he is tuning/repairing someone’s instrument.

People are now starting to file in - not many, everyone thinks the show is starting at 7PM. Every now and then, Robert picks up one of two guitars and adds more to the loop or morphs it a bit more. There appeared to be some technical problem whenever Robert tried to use certain effect like panning w/Delay: the sound system would overload the soundscape causing tremendous distortion - it was to plague the performance throughout the day.

Robert would play for short periods of time then put the guitar down and walk off to the side of the stage to take the sound in, talk with stage personnel, have a drink and survey the audience (what there was of one.) There probably wasn’t more than one hundred people there. At one point I believe he was talking w/ Bill Forth (Ten Seconds fame) as he is acting as tour manager for Robert during the G3 tour of the US.

One amusing item (at least from our point of view - probably not from Robert’s) was during a part where a new guitar part was being added to the loop, Robert stopped and moved toward the front of the stage to kindly ask two, maybe three security guards, who were talking up a storm to move their discussions elsewhere. This appeared to have put them off guard and they did stop for a short period of time. But they persisted and moments later, Bill Forth walks out in front of the first row of seats and again, asks if they would take it somewhere else. After what appeared to be some very interesting discussions / looks between the guards, Robert, and Bill Forth, they finally moved and went their own ways. Robert then sat back down and applied more sound to the ’scape’.

Now this went on until about 7:25PM until finally Robert picked up his personal belongings, a guitar and left the stage to a small round of applause. By this time the crowd had grown to 7-8 hundred and most were unaware of what just took place during the preceding two hours.

The music: Such splendor hearing these soundscapes live !! They take on a form all their own. We put our feet up on the seats in front of us and just let our thoughts take us. So peaceful at times, so terrifying at others and everything between.

During parts of the performance we’d walked around to gauge the sound and effect from different points in the amphitheater. Robert would build up walls of sound from chords played in rapid picking fashion across his guitar then allow the delay to transform them into washes of voice-like whispers - Similar, yet different to various soundscapes that are available through DGM.

Overall, minus the one technical problem I mentioned earlier (and the interesting Security/Performer interlude) an outstanding two hours of guitaring !

During each of the G3 performances (Sheppard, Vai and Satch) Robert could be seem standing in the wings bopping along to a song or two from each performer’s set. Joe Satriani’s set being the most interesting of the three (main G3) performances given. Joe was quick to introduce the main principles, including Robert, for the encore - a romp through blues based guitar club band mainstays: "Goin’ Down", "You Really Got Me" "Red House" and "My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama." Robert coped the good ’ol Hammond B3 organ parts, quite tastefully I might add - throwing the audience for a ’loop’ (no pun intended!) - and adding a few surprises in as well. At times a bit difficult to hear in the mix, but still fun and all seemed to be having a grand time.

Finally, a conclusion: See the soundscape performance for yourself - a personal moving experience and one I wouldn’t have missed. Be sure to arrive early enough as we did, like I said, I knew (a feeling) we had to get there early. I will make a point to see future performances of Robert’s, whatever the setting. It’s a matter of trust.

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