Photos ad Review by Ilya Mirman

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Last Friday night, fans of (solo artist and Guns N’ Roses guitarist) Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal got a rare treat: an opportunity to hear – and even sing on – his upcoming album. Kicking the “album listening party” concept up several notches, Ron has decided to complement the studio recordings with live audience participation!
In fact, even before this particular event, Bumblefoot has invited us all into the album’s creation throughout the recording and production process by publishing videos along the way – for example, this one about recording the guitar solo for the new song “Cuterebra”:

The event was held at a cool, intimate setting – a Brooklyn club called Good Room. Ron treated us all to great pizza, beer, and even sliders (featuring Bumblefoot hot sauce). Then, over the next four hours, Ron played the album tracks, explained each song’s origin, motivation, took questions from the audience, and even played live. And for several carefully chosen sections, Ron explained the audience participation elements he was looking to include (claps, group chants, cheering, and even foot stomping), and led us through several takes of each.

 

You quickly realize that Ron is in many ways the antithesis of a rock star – approachable, humble, real, revealing, at times vulnerable. But also interesting, and enormously talented – he engineered, produced, and sang and played every instrument on the album (except for drums), sharing some of the technical details of the process along the way.
Though I was originally introduced to Ron through Guns N’ Roses, over the past couple of years I’ve become familiar with his large catalog of solo work. The diverse library includes everything from hyperactive covers such as the Pink Panther Theme and Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You, to acoustic and electric albums such as Barefoot and Abnormal, respectively. And while the new material clearly has trademark Bumblefoot guitarwork, I found it more melodic than some of his past work, with more space between the notes. I can’t wait to hear the finished verison, and invite you to do the same. If you haven’t checked out Bumblefoot’s work, give it a listen!