Headed over to the House of Guitars for an in-store appearance by Victor Wooten last Friday after work. The setup was not the greatest with rows of guitars lining the entire floor of the store and the stage at the end, there was basically no good vantage point unless you were in the 2 rows of people crammed in front of the display cases. I got an ok spot off to the side, but you'll see from the videos below the view still wasn't great, and the camera got a better view than I did. Anyway, he came on and talked about his new album and book and then played a tune off the album.
Then he fielded questions for about 45 minutes or so. Most of the answers came down to his philosophies on music, basically you should play music not an instrument and think of playing music like speaking a language. It was definitely interesting to hear him talk, but it ended up dragging a little near the end and I wish he would have played a bit more. I was impressed though that he stayed for so long, I was checking the time and thinking, how is he going to make his show in time? Now I know why I am always waiting in the crowd for a show to start on time. He invited a member of the audience (some dude in a camouflage truck driver hat sporting a nice big 'stache--who played a pretty mean bass incidentally) up on stage to prove a point about playing and teaching how to play. He handed over his bass and told the guy to play. So he got the guy to play without playing by imagining the drums and not thinking about playing the bass. It was pretty interesting and reminded me of those famous Phish practice sessions. Anyway, he played another short tune after the question and answer, and then he stuck around for signing.
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