So, I saw the Aristocrats last night in San Francisco! For those of you who don't know the Aristocrats are a super group composed of Guthrie Govan, Bryan Beller, and last, but certainly not least, Marco Minnemann. It was in a a nice blues venue that was pretty small and cramped, but I felt that gave the show a much more intiment feeling. I lucked out & happened to get a table RIGHT in front of Guthrie. I watched him like a hawk would watch its prey, hoping that I'd absorb even a minuscule amount of knowledge from watching him play.
Overall the show was Incredible! The band is super dynamic and has unparalleled chemistry. They were able to just totally feed off of each other and sense what each other wanted to do. They really compliment each others playing styles & are exactly what a supergroup should be. We've often heard of super groups, which sound good in theory, but end up sucking. These guys are the real deal.
Anyways, here's the setlist from what I can remember & some anecdotes and/or details to go with them.
Set list:
See You Next Tuesday! I can't say for sure, but I think this was their first song. I wasn't 100% acquainted with all of their material at the time of the show.
Flatlands Before the song Bryan Beller explained how he hails from Nashville and does a lot of driving around out on the open country road and that that's where a lot of the inspiration for this song was derived. He was trying to tell everybody they were going to take the mood in a new direction, but somebody in the back shouted the name of a Slayer song. Bryan & Marco thought it was a pretty funny suggestion, so they broke out into the first few bars of said Slayer tune. (I'd name the song, but I know nothing about Slayer, my bad!) After stopping Bryan said they would play it, but "Poor Guthrie isn't up on his Slayer." To which Guthrie replied, "I come in peace!" They then joked about how they'd lost the mood they were going for, but that they'd play it anyways. I see what Brian meant when talking about the open road influencing the song. The chord progression just kind of rolls along and actually reminds me of a winding road. The overall vibe of the song is pretty relaxed. A nice change of pace from the rest of their set, which was pretty crazy & uptempo.
Boing!... I'm In the Back Guthrie switched to his set neck Suhr for this song. Marco told us the title of the song & said that he couldn't tell us what it was really about because his parents were in the crowd. He gave them a shout out & to my surprise they were sitting right behind me! I was making small talk with them earlier, they speak mostly German, so our conversation was limited as I only speak English, but they seemed like great folks. Marco said they came all the way from Germany to see him play!
I Want A Parrot
After switching from his set neck Suhr, back to his Antique Modern especially for this song, Guthrie realized his guitar wasn't in tune. So as he was tuning it he talked to us for a bit. He said he wrote the song because he'd always wanted a Parrot, but could never get one. He continued to tell us a funny anecdote about how the band was in Tenesse?
huh sorry the exact location slips my mind) when they wrote this song about wanting a Parrot. The very next day they saw signs posted saying "Wanted: A missing African Grey Parrot." He joked about however suspicious it must've seemed it wasn't them & they were still parrot-less. I'm not quite sure how this song has anything to do with wanting a parrot, but it's a great song none the less. 
Sweaty Knockers Bryan introduced the song by telling us it was about boobs. He then proceeded to tell us his wife's were "very nice." Bryan said he had to give his wife credit because although he had wanted to name the song "Boobs," it was her who came up with the "much more clever title Sweaty Knockers."
Blues ****ers Marco Minnemann explained that his concept for the song was to take all of these Blues cliches and just totally wreck them. He wanted to "**** the blues," so to speak. The band then effectionately joked about how it should be called **** the blues instead.
Erotic Cakes This was the last song on the set list (minus the encore). They referred to it as "the dirty song."
Waves Although the set was technically over and the club needed to close up everybody obviously wanted to hear more. After a lot of applaus and a standing ovation they were allowed to play an encore song & they chose waves.
Something else I forgot to mention, Marco Minnemann took what was at least a 10-20 minute drum solo while Guthrie & Bryan took a break. It was nothing, but incredible, I've never seen drumming like that live. Words can hardly describe.
I had happened to have my guitar with me since I was playing with some friends prior to the gig. I tried to get Guthrie to sign it after they were down bowing, but he just blew me off. A bit disappointing, but hey it was definitely a night to remember either way!
Oh, here's some photos I took! Sorry for the poor quality, they were taken with my phone.
Guthrie's guitars & amps
Guthrie's pedalboard
Marco's kit
Marco in action
Overall the show was Incredible! The band is super dynamic and has unparalleled chemistry. They were able to just totally feed off of each other and sense what each other wanted to do. They really compliment each others playing styles & are exactly what a supergroup should be. We've often heard of super groups, which sound good in theory, but end up sucking. These guys are the real deal.
Anyways, here's the setlist from what I can remember & some anecdotes and/or details to go with them.
Set list:
See You Next Tuesday! I can't say for sure, but I think this was their first song. I wasn't 100% acquainted with all of their material at the time of the show.
Flatlands Before the song Bryan Beller explained how he hails from Nashville and does a lot of driving around out on the open country road and that that's where a lot of the inspiration for this song was derived. He was trying to tell everybody they were going to take the mood in a new direction, but somebody in the back shouted the name of a Slayer song. Bryan & Marco thought it was a pretty funny suggestion, so they broke out into the first few bars of said Slayer tune. (I'd name the song, but I know nothing about Slayer, my bad!) After stopping Bryan said they would play it, but "Poor Guthrie isn't up on his Slayer." To which Guthrie replied, "I come in peace!" They then joked about how they'd lost the mood they were going for, but that they'd play it anyways. I see what Brian meant when talking about the open road influencing the song. The chord progression just kind of rolls along and actually reminds me of a winding road. The overall vibe of the song is pretty relaxed. A nice change of pace from the rest of their set, which was pretty crazy & uptempo.
Boing!... I'm In the Back Guthrie switched to his set neck Suhr for this song. Marco told us the title of the song & said that he couldn't tell us what it was really about because his parents were in the crowd. He gave them a shout out & to my surprise they were sitting right behind me! I was making small talk with them earlier, they speak mostly German, so our conversation was limited as I only speak English, but they seemed like great folks. Marco said they came all the way from Germany to see him play!
I Want A Parrot
After switching from his set neck Suhr, back to his Antique Modern especially for this song, Guthrie realized his guitar wasn't in tune. So as he was tuning it he talked to us for a bit. He said he wrote the song because he'd always wanted a Parrot, but could never get one. He continued to tell us a funny anecdote about how the band was in Tenesse?
huh sorry the exact location slips my mind) when they wrote this song about wanting a Parrot. The very next day they saw signs posted saying "Wanted: A missing African Grey Parrot." He joked about however suspicious it must've seemed it wasn't them & they were still parrot-less. I'm not quite sure how this song has anything to do with wanting a parrot, but it's a great song none the less. Sweaty Knockers Bryan introduced the song by telling us it was about boobs. He then proceeded to tell us his wife's were "very nice." Bryan said he had to give his wife credit because although he had wanted to name the song "Boobs," it was her who came up with the "much more clever title Sweaty Knockers."
Blues ****ers Marco Minnemann explained that his concept for the song was to take all of these Blues cliches and just totally wreck them. He wanted to "**** the blues," so to speak. The band then effectionately joked about how it should be called **** the blues instead.
Erotic Cakes This was the last song on the set list (minus the encore). They referred to it as "the dirty song."
Waves Although the set was technically over and the club needed to close up everybody obviously wanted to hear more. After a lot of applaus and a standing ovation they were allowed to play an encore song & they chose waves.
Something else I forgot to mention, Marco Minnemann took what was at least a 10-20 minute drum solo while Guthrie & Bryan took a break. It was nothing, but incredible, I've never seen drumming like that live. Words can hardly describe.
I had happened to have my guitar with me since I was playing with some friends prior to the gig. I tried to get Guthrie to sign it after they were down bowing, but he just blew me off. A bit disappointing, but hey it was definitely a night to remember either way!
Oh, here's some photos I took! Sorry for the poor quality, they were taken with my phone.
Guthrie's guitars & amps
Guthrie's pedalboard
Marco's kit
Marco in action
