…. and one giant fucking leap for me. Today I did something I should have done a lot earlier in my life. I went and saw a psychologist. It’s really not an easy thing to do. When you are like me, and have had so many things in your life that has forced you to be strong and resilient for years, trying to open up and let all these things through so you can deal with them is a very hard thing to do. But I did it, and even after one hour I’ve started implementing some things that were brought up in an effort to get me out of this funk.

Funk. That makes it sound so trivial. Yes I suffer from depression. That is not a trivial thing, but it sure is hell not something I would use as an excuse for everything wrong in my life, or everything that goes wrong in it unlike some people I know do. It is a result of many, many things. I don’t need a magic pill that will make me feel OK, i would rather face these issues and get over them.

And that is what I am going to do. The first thing is to get some studio work. I’m going to approach several recording studios in the area and off my services free of charge if I can just be a fly on the wall or engineer assistant during sessions. I want to get in there and start learning. I may even offer professional web design services in trade for watching and learning. It may also be a good way to get some more web work full stop from artists, which is an area I would really like to focus on.

This one hour helped me put a lot more in focus than I could have imagined. Or then again maybe it’s my obsessive compulsive behavior showing through again. I don’t know, but hopefully I can work more things out over the coming months.

I grew up listenening to KISS. I’ve got photo’s of me somewhere as a three year old with Starchild make up on all rocking and cute (yes at one point in time I was cute). So when I was given a free ticket to go see Paul Stanley’s solo tour I thought why not. This was further enhanced once I found out that Stanley’s backing band was the awesome band from RockStar. Those guys are some of the finest musicians I have ever seen assembled into a band and they sure didn’t disappoint.

In fact, for the most part neither did Stanley. His voice was sounding a little worse for wear, and except for the occasional verbal spewing that kept cropping up “during” songs, he was exceptionally impressive. Even as a guitarist, with an awesome guitarist on stage, I found myself watching the drummer, Nate Morton, more than anything else.

The man is simply amazing. Rock solid but very flashy and stylish. He brought a huge amount of power and drive to every single song. Any band would be lucky to have a drummer half a gifted as Morton.

It has to be said, and Stanley himself mentioned it as soon as he walked on stage, the crowd numbers were awful. Being generous I would say pushing a thousand - tops. But those that were there were given a pretty good show by a great entertainer an and awesome collection of musicians.

This is the best cover I have heard in ages.

Oh look, another custom guitar. And this time it’s a “relic” as well. Is no one happy to just make a great “standard” guitar anymore? This does look like a great guitar, make no mistake about it. I just don’t get this whole relic things. I’d rather have my guitar look like a product of my blood, sweat and tears and not someone else’s.

The guitar, dubbed the Limited Edition Brian Setzer Tribute, will bear the markings of a seriously worn-in Gretsch, including painstakingly recreated scratches, dings, worn down finish & hardware, and even some old stickers (note the oh so rock ‘n’ roll yellow skull & crossbones on the headstock.)

While full specs aren’t available at this time, the Brian Setzer Tribute is expected to feature a single cutaway hollowbody design, with trestle bracing, an ebony fretboard with 22 frets (and neo-classic thumbnail inlays,) a pair of TV Jones Classic pickups, authentic Bigsby Vibrato tailpiece (including “wear & tear” of course,) dual “dice” tone knobs, and a Relic Cowboy case.

I really don’t think a guitar like this is a playable instrument. It’s a collector’s piece. And if that’s the case why use such valuable components? As long as it looks the goods, right? Have I just started the next “relic” fad, Knock of replicas?

I hope not.