Went to see "Experience Hendrix 2010" last night, and wow! I absolutely loved every minute, though one of the highlights was definitely Doug Wimbish of Living Colour kneeling on the floor about ten feet away from us and playing the hell out of his bass for this little boy who was obviously just awestruck. At least, I assume the little boy was awestruck, because I sure as hell was!

One of the best things, I thought, was the way each act took a classic Hendrix song or three and included both classic Hendrix touches (e.g. Steve Vai playing the guitar with his tongue) and something of their own spin on it (e.g. hints of "Cliffs of Dover" in Eric Johnson's playing). To me, that was an even better tribute than "just" covering Hendrix's songs, as it spoke (at least to me) of not only how much each of these musicians loved Hendrix's music but also the ways in which he had inspired their own musical paths, truly passing on a musical legacy.

I hadn't been to a concert in ages, and I'm so very glad to have gone to this one.

In other non-musical stuff from the evening, Patsfan and I had a surprising conversation over dinner facilitated, weirdly enough, by Facebook. Seems one of his coworkers is friends with Priest Dude, saw me comment on one of PD's posts, and started asking Patsfan about HTAZP. There was a degree of "OMG, freaky Pagan stuff!" in this, apparently. Leading to Patsfan trying to explain stuff he totally doesn't get but, from the sound of it, making an admirable attempt that was probably less confusing than anything I would've said, and in the course of which Patsfan quoted himself as explaining what a free spirit I am.

I kind of sat there and blinked in amazement for a bit, because, dude, I came away from that retreat a few weeks ago refreshed, yes, but also feeling slightly like the Pagan equivalent of a stuffed shirt. "Free spirit" isn't actually a phrase I would have ever thought to use to describe myself, but I kind of like that he does.