Blog Post: 6 Guitars

I recently went to see "6 Guitars" at the Calgary Fringe Fest. It jumped out at me from the listing because it reminded me of the film "It Might Get Loud" and it's always interesting to explore people's passions.

"6 Guitars" is  a one man show staring Chase Padgett. In it he plays 6 different guitar players, from different styles and backgrounds, including an 80-something year old blues musician, a 20-something rocker, a good 'ol boy country music guitarist, a (slightly neurotic) classical guitarist, a self satisfied jazz guitarist and a folkie. The evening unfolds as a talk given by the six of them explaining their love of guitar and their view of music.

The first thing I noticed about the show was how uncomfortable I still feel interacting in plays. In addition to being uncomfortable with Padgett's various personas interactions with audience (rock on Albert Einstein looking guy) I found the proximity to the actor surprisingly overwhelming. I spent the majority of the show watching the back of the chair of the person sitting in front of me.* While I suppose this reduced my total exposure to the show, it also helped the characters in the show cement themselves in my brain, since it allowed them to not look like the actor.

Over all the show was very enjoyable, well acted, funny and engaging. Its easy to see how it sold out all it's Calgary showings and if it's ever somewhere you get a chance to see it I recommend you to go. Despite all that, I did leave the show feeling somewhat unsatisfied, and it took me a little while to figure out why, but I think I have it more or less nailed down now.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I was attracted to "6 Guitars" because it reminded me of "It Might get Loud." If you haven't seen it, I recommend you do, (with the best available sound system you can find). It details the lives in music of The Edge, Jimmy Page and Jack White and their history and their love of music and ends with what must be one of the most epic jam sessions of all time.

The issue I had with "6 Guitars" (and I realize that it isn't fair to critique a piece for not being something else) was that while each of the six characters were passionate and their love of music was clear, they were only characters and somehow, even if the show was supposed to show us Chase Padgett's passion for music, the message gets muddled. I admit that may not actually be the point of the show, but the other "moral" to take away from it seems to be that "music is good," which I'm certainly not going to argue against.

So in conclusion, "6 Guitars" is a great show, that isn't quite as epic as 3 amazing guitar players jamming in an empty warehouse, but still stands very well

* fortunately the show was put on in the DaDe Lab so the chair was actually really cool. If i ever have a project making enumerated chairs, you'll know what spawned it.