Jemfest happened this past weekend in Las Vegas and it was fun fun fun – do go to Jemfest and Jemsite for info, photos, and a bunch of other good stuff. Steve’s schedule sadly did not allow for him to attend, but I was there and Dave Weiner even performed, and a great time was had by all. Jemfest has donated the proceeds from the weekend to the Make A Noise Foundation, and we can’t thank them enough for that. Raffled prizes that were awarded at Jemfest included the one-of-a-kind Ultra Zone guitar (like the one on the CD cover), Steve Vai’s own Bad Horsie wah pedal (plucked from his pedalboard by Dave just a day before Jemfest), two Jem-style guitar bodies and a custom swirl finish, and lots of other good things. Rob Nishida from Ibanez dropped by with an armload of Ibanez swag and performers included Dave Weiner, Rob Balducci, Adam Fox, Ken Burtch, Jeremy Krull and others — I’ll be posting a bunch of pictures etc here soon.
Big thanks to all involved, but especially to Kevan Geier, Gabe Nickelson, Ken Burtch, Bill Hyden, Dave Ho and everyone who worked so hard to organize the event. They’re already thinking about the 3rd Jemfest, so stay tuned here and to the previously mentioned websites for info about that. They also had some extremely cool Jemfest t-shirts that were swirled like the Jem2K guitar — each is unique and they look great. They’ll be selling the few remaining shirts soon at Jemfest or Jemsite or both, so keep an eye on that.
The updates from January-June 2000 are filed away in another page, so this one doesn’t get too crazy long…
Thana Harris’s new “Thanatopsis” CD features Steve Vai on the song “Fingers”, so get yourself a copy or two at www.thanaharris.com! She’s also written a book about her life & times with Steve Vai & Frank Zappa among others. Get that too!