I found this review:
Bx3 Tour @ Hard Rock Cafe, Pittsburgh, PA Tues, April 18, 2006
Current mood: accomplished
Last night was one of the greatest experiences a bass player could ever hope. I was privledged to see the Bx3 Tour at the Hard Rock Cafe in Pittsburgh! I felt privledged enough to have such a tour visit Pittsburgh, let alone get a front row, dead center seat in the venue. Also, how often do you get to see a bass player solo artist tour?
In case you didn't hear about the tour (since it wasn't promoted very well), the tour consists of Jeff Berlin, Stuart Hamm and Billy Sheehan. I wasn't too familiar with Jeff Berlin until last night. Stuart Hamm made a name for himself playing with Joe Satriani. Billy Sheehan started in the highly underrated Talas, moved to David Lee Roth's first post-VH band, Mr. Big (remember "To Be With You") and had a Jazz project known as Niacin. The three bassists tour with a backing band consisting of Jude Gold on guitar and John Mader on drums. These guys were amazing as they had to play different styles with each bassist (jazz and rock).
The show opened with all three members on stage playing the Star Spangled banner. The introduced each other and Jeff Berlin took the stage. Jeff's playing was a little softer and on the lighter side, which made for a perfect opening. The Jazz influenced music was a little different for me to listen to but it was really relaxing and fluid at the same time. He played a bass driven "Tears of Heaven" by Clapton, which was the highlight of his set. If anyone has any setlist information from Jeff, let me know.
Next up was Stu Hamm. A few "Stuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuus" could be heard from the audience. His songs were more rock oriented than Jeff's. If you are a Satriani fan, you would love Stu's music as it sounds like he was influenced by Satch. His playing was nothing short of remarkable. I've never seen someone slap thier fingers so quickly off the bass.
Finally, the man I couldn't wait to see live, Billy Sheehan. Damn that guy is nuts on stage. You know those faces athletes make when they play, well he does the same thing. I have a few pictures below that show some of his teethgrinding faces. He really gets into his playing. He was fast as hell and did a lot of fast finger tapping that has to be seen live to apprciate. His setlist included Mr. Big's "Addicted to that Rush", a King's X cover of Goldilox (I think), Talas's/David Lee Roth's "Shyboy" and a few tunes from his newest solo album.
The encore consisted of all three bassists on stage and the touring guitarist on bass as well. I don't want to give away what songs they played : ) Afterwards, as you probably guessed, I met all the band members and the touring musicians and got pictures with them. All the guys were really cool and were more than happy to get pix. I really need to get that disposable camera to the grocery store before something happens to it.
Update on 04/20/2006. I managed to snap several pictures with my cell phone camera. I turned the flash off and it didn't seem to bother any of the players! It took forever to send the pictures to my computer. Here they are. I took pics mostly of Stu and Billy. Jeff is in a couple as well.
http://tinyurl.com/ojkya
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