Richie Sambora & Orianthi

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Well what can I say, it was 2010 when I discovered Orianthi for the first time along with her guitar mastery in the rockin’ blues genre. There’s no doubt that Stevie Ray Vaughn has influenced her play style and groove with solid electric steel tones and riffs bringing together what SRV fans love hear and thus creating her own brand and core fan base.

Nothing looks better on stage than sexy guitar playing … and Orianthi does it well. So this year at NAMM 2018 sound-check live, she will step on the stage to headline with her partner Richie Shambora and a plethora of name brand musicians of openers and all-stars to perform throughout.  But I’d like to concentrate on RSO because several of the All-stars deserve featured articles themselves, and this one has a couple of hiccups to mention … I just don’t want to this to reflect on the other artists that performed before RSO hit the stage.

The homegrown Aussie superstar Orianthi was pretty much in control and in good form which the fans were happy about. However it seemed that Richie has memory issues and missed words in several songs and it almost seemed like Orianthi was doing what she could to save the show from bad reviews and fan anger.  Getting on sage 30 min late didn’t help.  A couple of her songs were amazing but the funny thing is that Richie wasn’t really backing her with a second guitar, I mean this is what he’s known for right?  Being a guitarist?  It just seemed weird to me and out of place, he stuck around later and filled in some.

I simply think that everyone was expecting so much more from this power couple. I mean a few things were out f their control, the lighting was predominantly blue without much changing or moving and whoever was doing sound definitely screwed up the throw from the PA mains … The front of house couldn’t hear the guitars, well at least I couldn’t.  But then again my ears are fucked up from years of metal abuse lol.  I could see Orianthi frustrated by constantly turning her body to the side stage mix with her finger pointed up and it was obvious she couldn’t hear herself through the monitors.  But I thought that the reason these two got together musically and romantically was because they are both guitar gods and this was their weapon of choice. We all know they are both good vocalists and decent writers … But lets face it, What they are truly known for is their guitar playing!!

So to sum it all up, it one of the shows I’ve been waiting see, just as excited as any other. The show started off pretty bad, but ended up fairing well. And hit’s like Voodoo Chile stole the show and that one song in itself could have made up for issues that seemed to carry on for half the set.

Authored By Frankie J “Anyone Got Ear Plugs?”