This past weekend marked On Track Magazine’s first ever coverage of the annual NAMM show that takes place each year in Anaheim, CA at the Anaheim Convention Center and I must say… I’m beat; but very satisfied nonetheless. Like Disneyland for the music industry, NAMM involves a lot of walking, planning your course of action from the map of events and celebrities provided, standing in lines - and did I mention walking? After accessing the four-day event I determined that Friday and Saturday would definitely give me the most opportunity to get what I needed in order to give a solid review of the show’s most notable events.

Friday began with a grueling two and a half hour drive in traffic. I ended up parking about six blocks away from the Convention Center. After arriving on scene I picked up my passes and headed straight over to Samson Technologies for a signing that included Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian whom I was interested in saying hi to. However the line was ridiculously long and I decided to pass and moved over to the Dean Markley booth to wait for Ronnie James Dio and band. While waiting I spent time talking with a couple of the guys from new comers Icarus Witch who were also doing a signing. They kicked me down a CD and after giving it a once over I was pleasantly surprised; old school Power Metal in the vein of Maiden or Priest with a hint of Rush - not bad really. As a bonus surprise Kerry Livgren of Kansas stopped by which was pretty cool. The Dio guys were great as always; a real pleasure to speak with, very classy. Next we headed over to Laney Amplifiers to talk shop with their rep about distribution and dealers as it seems to be nearly impossible for anyone in the States to find these obnoxious sounding beauties that have fast become the Euro metal scene’s weapon of choice. Artists such as Black Sabbath, Opeth and Dragonforce are just a few that have pledged their allegiance. Guitarists Sam Totman and Herman Li of Dragonforce actually happened to be hanging out and posed for a couple of pictures. Moving on we stopped by EMG and chatted with Eddie Ojeda from Twisted Sister for a few before running into the guys from P.O.D. who were doing a signing at Vic Firth. It was good to see Marcos back in the fold. We had just enough time before the day was done to run over to the Roland booth as our new technical gear advisor, Dan Smith, asked a couple of questions to the reps working the booth, after which we took our leave to prepare for the next day.

Saturday proved to be a much more eventful day and kept us busy from the time we walked in the door. After foregoing the line to see Nikki Sixx (Motley Crue), we headed downstairs to hook up with Chris Impellitteri at Engl Amps. He confirmed to us that former vocalist Rob Rock was poised to be back on board for the band’s next CD, which is sure to make fans happy. While we were there we checked out a couple of the amps as well; mean as hell. Drummer Simon Wright from Dio told us we should give them our attention when we spoke with him the day before saying they were monsters and came across extremely powerfull. Ronnie James Dio and guitarist Craig Goldy had done a signing at Engl the day before so there are quite a few musicians backing these Amps. Before we left guitarist Doug Aldrich (Whitesnake/Dio) showed up to sign some autographs and we took a moment to tell him that the four new tracks on the Whitesnake Live CD were absolutely fantastic, he responded by saying that the material that they are currently working on is ten times better. I don’t know about you but I can’t wait to hear what they’re cooking up. Heading back up stairs we visited the signers at ESP Guitars: Michael Amott (Arch Enemy) Wayne Static (Static-X) and Alexi Lailo (Children of Bodom) and then headed over to Pearl Drums to see Vinnie Paul (Pantera/Damageplan), Morgan Rose (Sevendust) and P.O.D.. The line was extremely long but we managed to get in a couple of hellos and then headed back downstairs to see Jack Frost from Seven Witches. We found him at the Moser Custom Guitar booth shredding away on a beautiful 10-string handmade. He told us he vowed never to play a 10 string but was absolutely sold and ready to take it home. He confirmed that they will be recording the next Witches CD in the coming months and it is the heaviest material he’s ever written. No vocalist changes this time around either, which is good news. Now the buzz about the Dimebag Tribute show taking place later that evening was all over the Convention this day and we did everything we could to score passes to this event - with no luck whatsoever. However, it seems that when you are least expecting it good things come your way and I have to give a very special thank you to Mr. Jack Frost who hooked us up with passes; You Rock Man! On our way back up top we stopped by Rikki Rockett’s drum booth, Chop Shop, to say hey and bore witness to a 14year-old female drummer prodigy. As the lights went down signaling the close of the show for that day we headed out to get some grub before the Dimebag Tribute Show.

Rumor was that they actually handed out more passes for this event than they had space for so we weren’t sure if we’d actually make it inside. After standing in line for about 30min. they started letting a few of the people at a time inside. Luckily we were fairly close to the door and made it inside with no problem at all. The first band was already on stage and I never did catch their name but heard that they were from Sweden? What I do know is that they were all chicks except for their drummer who was Mr. Gene Hoglan (Dark Angel, Death, Strapping Young Lad). Nick Bowcott (Grim Reaper) followed with a solo performance and a medley of Dime’s songs which proved to be most impressive. There was a brief intermission with a pole dancing event featuring the Coffin girls from Coffin Cases but I took this opportunity to hit the bar and breathe for a moment. Next we had the line up of Nick Catanese (BLS) on guitar, John DeServio (BLS) on bass Mike Stone (Queensrÿche) on guitar and vocals and Brian Tichy (Billy Idol) on drums. The guys played a few songs from some of Dime’s all time favorite bands including “Cold Gin” from KISS “I Don’t Know” from Ozzy as well as a cover of Black Label’s “In This River” sung by DeServio. As much as I anticipated Zakk Wylde to show up he was nowhere to be seen. Following their relatively short set came the next line up which consisted of Scott Ian (Anthrax) on guitar Paul Gray (Slipknot) on bass, Nick Bowcott (Grim Reaper) on guitar and Vinnie Paul (Pantera/Damageplan) on drums. First up on vocals was Noah Robinson from Bleed The Sky who performed some classic Pantera tunes including the crowd favorite “Fucking Hostile” with an intensity that would have made Dime cry. Ripper Owens (Iced Earth, ex-Judas Priest) followed with some classic Priest including “Electric Eye” which offered up the sound of perfection. This was the highlight of the evening for me as I am a huge Priest fan myself (obviously) and believe Ripper is still one of the best vocalists on the planet today. The final surprise act for the night (although rumor had already spread among the crowd) turned out to be Motorhead. Now I have always respected the hell out of this band and Lemmy in particular but have never been much of a fan. However, I thoroughly enjoyed their set this evening and my left ear is still ringing thanks to Lemmy’s obnoxiously loud bass amp. The highlight was their cover of the Beatles “Back In The U.S.S.R.”

Ultimately our initial NAMM experience was exceptionally good, we saw some of what we wanted, missed some that we’d hoped for and caught some that we didn’t plan on. As Simon Wright (Dio) put it to me we got NAMMed and we're really looking forward to next year.    

-Priest