not just a guitar god

When you've known someone for a very long time you expect that you know pretty much all there is to know about them. Luckily though, every now and then a tid-bit emerges that you never would have guessed. "On my high school muck-up day, I went dressed as Jimmy Hendrix," Mr You told me, "I even custom made a Nuno Bettencourt guitar replica, with the signature upside-down head stock."
There you go, never would have guessed that… (although he did dress up as Frank Zappa for some other school event, so he had clearly been working his way through all of his guitar gods).

With that in mind you'll understand the buzz that surrounded the other night when we went to see Nuno Bettencourt live for the first time, (especially because both Frank and Jimmy are already off playing the squealing guitars of heaven). He's been one of Mr You's all time favourite guitar legends for years, and now he has a new band.

I'll admit I was a tad apprehensive and not sure what to expect since my only knowledge of Nuno is that he was in the somewhat dubious late 80's - early 90's hair band, Extreme. However, on the flip side he is married to Suze DeMarchi; one of the most gorgeous Aussie rock chicks of all time. That, and I trust Mr Yous' taste in music. He assured me it'd be good, and even if I didn't enjoy it I was at least in for a really good perve.

The place was packed, packed with guitar boffins galore! There were old guitar boffins, young guitar boffins, and all the boffins in between. My favourites were 3 guys sporting tight jeans, black leather jackets, and big long wavy moused rock hair (complete with a side part so their hair fell loosely across one eye and down one side of their face). Is there a way of telling if these folk are unfortunately stuck in a by-gone era, if they are die hard "hair band of the early 90's" fans who refuse to give up the glory, or those ultra cool retro-chic revivalists? (Much like the crowd at a recent Wolfmother gig). In any case this all important quandary kept me occupied until the band came on.

I'm glad to say they pretty much rocked. Nuno lived up to all reports of being totally sexy, plus the added hotness of the "being on stage" phenomenon just enhanced it all. What is it about being on stage that makes people so damn sexy? (Mind you, this same phenomenon didn't extend to the "Tom Baker as Dr Who" keyboardist, wearing the graphically too tight white pants, and long silky scarf).

The gig must have lived up to all the boffins' expectations too, as there were impressed nods, twitching fingers, and necks craning to see the guitar finger work left right and centre.

Often there's grave danger in seeing one of your absolute favourite bands due to the high risk of disappointment and devastation if they don't meet your expectations. However, you know a gig is really great when all you want to do is listen to every album they've ever made again and again and again. (P.J. Harvey left me like this for months).

Mr You has been utterly beaming all week and has barely stopped playing his guitar. I'm glad to report it's a real one, not a particle board replica with signature upside-down string head stock thing.