Hiromi's Sonicbloom gig report (plus some news)

[Kyo]

I saw Hiromi's band live yesterday. Half the band was different than on her last two albums,

so I was curious how good the replacement guys for Fuze and Martin Valihora would be.

Here's the setlist:

Hiromi's Sonicbloom

Hotel Bayerischer Hof, Munich, Germany

April 22, 2009

Hiromi (keys)

Tony Grey (bass)

John Shannon (guitar)

Maurizio Zottarelli (drums)

Set 1:

Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise

Led Boots

Clair de Lune

My Favorite Things

Ue wo Muite Aruko

Set 2:

Time Travel

Deep into the Night

Canon in D (by Johann Pachelbel, Hiromi piano solo)

Caravan

Encore:

Time Out

John Shannon's setlist had Time Flies listed before Hiromi's solo

piece, but they decided to cut the show a bit short (it really was

long enough, the tunes were way longer than the studio versions).

John Shannon sounded great with the band. Very different from Fuze, but

I love his band Waking Vision and the guitar solo section of My Favorite

Things had a total Waking Vision vibe. His playing is less wacky and overall

more on the rock side than Fuze, but always tasteful - Ue wo Muite Aruko

ended with him playing unamplified! Maurizio Zottarelli sounded as if he'd

always been playing with the band - I've seen Hiromi live four times with

Martin Valihora behind the kit and Maurizio really nailed those tunes.

I talked to the band after the gig and it seems Maurizio might be the new permanent

drummer for the group. However, Tony told me that the next Hiromi album will be a piano

solo disc, so after this tour ends there should be some Hiromi solo gigs. Tony wants to

use the free time to focus on his new project that will feature John Shannon and several

of the talented people who played on his first two albums (both well worth getting btw!):

Harmonica player Gregoire Maret, keyboardist Romain Collin, Drum&Bass style drummer

Deantoni Parks (I really love this guy's style!) and Indian singer Falguni Shah.

Edited April 23, 2009 by Kyo

[PHILLYQ]

"...Indian singer Falguni Shah"

She's also known as just Falu. I've seen her live a couple times and sh'e a helluva singer.

[Kyo]

Cool video! I liked the one song she sang on Tony's debut CD a lot, so this is good news for me.