Now the first time I had seen Trace Bundy, in Vienna, VA, he had young prodigy, Sungha Jung. The kid could play, but was so emotionless and mechanical. Sure, he was a kid (12 or 13 at the time?), but it was just such a stark contrast to Trace’s playing and persona.
Last year at WCL, I saw Trace again, but this time as a solo act. That gave him a little bit more time to play and to tell stories. He can hold your attention well enough to be a solo act, so that worked.
This time, Trace brought youtube sensation, Sandra Bae. She’s this 18 year old fingerstyle guitarist whose youtube videos garnish views numbering in the hundreds of thousands. Conveniently, she’s from Philly (Korea, but is with a host family near Philly).
As it may be apparent, my life is fairly busy. I don’t get time to check up on youtube or anything like that; the latest internet sensations to reach me. So I went into this without seeing any of Sandra’s videos. Admittedly, I went in with low expectations. I expected something mechanized and dry; note-for-note perfect with no life.
But that’s not Sandra. She’s transparent; you know what she is thinking because she’ll say it. If she’s nervous or thinks she’s going to mess up, she’ll tell you, make an awkward joke about it, and then …just rip. There’s something that being on stage causes sometimes, where your mind is all over the place and the only thing you know is playing guitar; your mind is racing and if you do anything that isn’t playing guitar, you flounder. I’m sure it could come off as unprofessional, but if you’ve got the chops to back it and the wit to play it off, you can use the candor to your advantage.
And there was something about her playing that felt right. Like her stage presence, you could sense the excitement and nervousness, but it just seemed like she belonged there. As a player, she has an impeccable sense of melody, intertwining the melodies with bassy rhythms and leads that draw you in. She only played covers (of which I’m not a huge fan), but her original arrangements blended the familiarity with her personality in such a way that set her apart from being just another face doing a cover at an open mic. She drew from a number of inspirations, ranging from Michael Jackson, “who was black,” to Queen, to Tommy Emmanuel, to Andy McKee. I was personally rather impressed with her cover of Apologize, as she took a cover from a genre I’m not fond of, and made it interesting and original, without having to sing. So often the basis of a cover is limited to dumbing down the music and singing it differently, based on the limitations of the individual’s voice. Instead, Sandra took the mundane and gave it flare and technicality and …well, check it out:
Listening to her arrangements, at age 18, made me take a serious look at some of my music. She’s got a bright future ahead of her. She has talent, personality, and a massive following. Right now she’s just arranging covers. If she can get into composing original pieces, she’ll be golden. Yes, there is a niche in playing artsy covers on youtube, but music is bigger than that and it sounds like her aspirations are as well. I mean, she’s only played a handful of shows and she’s playing with Trace Bundy …that’s a good start.
And, like I mentioned previously, she’s living with a host family outside of Philly. So, if you’re in the area, keep an eye out for her dates over the summer!
Back to the show; the stage then opened for Trace Bundy.
Now something about Trace - First and foremost, he is a musician. You can’t deny that; he’s musically talented beyond what any individual could reasonably hope for. And I say musician, because his approach appears appears to be well rooted in theory; he knows what he’s playing; he’s not just a guitarist. Beyond that, however, he’s a performer.
You’ve gotta have personality. For solo acts, if you want people to like your live show, you need them to like not only your music, but who you are as a person. Because we’re in the day and age where you can get music anywhere, you have to sell more than just notes.
Trace has stories, jokes, and crowd engagement. Even if he were an average guitarist, I think he’d make out pretty well just on personality. I try, in my own performances, but I’m well aware that I don’t quite have the same charm. When I see Trace Bundy, I take notes.
So since Sandra opened for him, his set was a bit shorter than last years. Unfortunate on one hand, but on the other, it’s neat to see the up-and-comings.
His set started out with Elephant King, the title track to his latest album.
Next, was Overtime; a delay-based tune centered around playing 1.5x (pay for working overtime) the speed of the delay. It’s a great way for him to introduce the idea of delay to an audience and a great tutorial on how to use delays more dynamically. I had seen him perform both Elephant King and Overtime before, but I’m fairly certain this was the first time I got to see him play Bristlecone. To play this song, he plays a little riff prior to the song and then plays it in reverse to start the song. Again, it’s a nice little demo of how he is actually processing the sound and an interesting look into another artist who uses such effects.
The Oldies medley seems to come out at every show. I think there may have been a few new references, but this one is kinda getting gimmicky. Maybe that’s just my disdain for covers?
Pachelbel’s Canon is a classic arrangement for Trace. He was the first I saw to actually do something innovative with a more classically arranged piece. This was part of the inspiration that Kelly and I had for having Trevor Gordon Hall play this at our wedding. Trace brought Sandra back to the stage to accompany him in this one. When I had seen him with Sungha, they basically played the same thing, but, for this, Sandra had written an accompanying part that really went well with Trace’s version.
Next was Traverse, a song about a rock climbing accident, that resonated well with Kelly, as she was still in her boot from her accident.
Trace got more of the entertainer out with Happy Birthday, played backwards, followed by Beat It on his Iphone. Both arguably gimmicky, but still entertaining nonetheless, especially when seeing peoples confused faces during Happy Birthday. And, actually, I hadn’t seen Beat It on the Iphone before; previously he had played superstition. Personally, I think Superstition worked out better, but it was good to see things switched up.
The night wrapped up with Joy and Sorrow, Dueling Ninjas, and Hot Capo Stew; three crowd favorites. Aside from the frenzied capo use on Hot Capo Stew, I think Joy and Sorrow is one of my favorites. It uses two guitars in different tunings, weaving between major and minor keys.
For an encore, Trace came back out to play a U2 cover, Where the Streets Have No Name.
Also, at some point throughout the show, he recounted the story of the crème brulee from last year. Consequently, I now know how to make crème brulee.
In all, yes, I would go see this exact show again. Trace is engaging and a great performer. However, I desperately want to hear more of his songs that I haven’t seen him perform. It seems like he’s stuck playing “Trace Bundy’s Greatest Hits.” The hits are hits because they are justifiably the most interesting, exciting, and innovative, but I want to see the whole story. And I want to hear the whole story; I want to hear the stories to all of songs I haven't seen him play...
Again, I’ve been challenged. Two weeks, back-to-back, I have seen phenomenal guitarists who challenge what I write, how I write, and how I perform. Ultimately, as a guitarist and performer, that is what I want to see; my songs and performances challenging and inspiring others.
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