For the third year in a row I had the pleasure of seeing one of my guitarists of all time... Dave Meniketti. Dave, Phil, John and Mike together make up Y&T (Yesterday and Today). One of my first memories of getting to know this band was on an MTV concert when I was about 15 years old.  After seeing the pure energy of their live show, getting hooked on their songs and my jaw dropping open watching Dave crank out riff after riff on his Les Paul I was hooked.

About three years ago I was in Los Angeles at a Tower Records store just thumbing through CDs and I came across a CD which just said “Meniketti” on it. At that time I didn’t know that Dave had put out a solo CD so I got it and went straight back to my hotel to give it a listen and load it into my iPod. Well, a week later I was at a camera dealer demo day in San Jose, California and in walks this couple... looking rather “rock and roll-ish” I might add... and I look at this guy and I’m thinking... is that Dave Meniketti??? So, I ask him... “Is your name Dave?” He says, “Yes...”. “Dave Meniketti?”, I ask. He replies with a grin... “Yea...”. Then I ask him, “Can I shake your hand and say ‘thank you’?” After that we had some great conversations about photography (which Dave is a very good photographer) and music stuff as well. I just couldn’t believe that after so many years, one week after I buy his CD I end up meeting him (and his wife, Jill). Talk about awesome!

When I used to teach guitar lessons Dave was always a big part of what I have students listen to and get inspired by. I would use Y&T songs to teach students how to play with pure emotion and to just attack the guitar and not think or worry so much about what they were doing... just play!

What has been the best part of all of this is that he and Jill are really wonderful people. Everyone enjoys meeting what they consider their “idols” but when that “idol” turns out to be someone who’s not that friendly or doesn’t care that you regard them that way then it is a real disappointment. This certainly isn’t the case with Dave. He’s just a really great guy to everyone.

Lastly, I had a conversation with a guy at the show last night who was from NJ originally like me and he commented on how friendly Y&T fans are! This couldn’t be any truer! We were talking about how people at the show who were up next to the stage would step back and let others up next to the stage to get a good view as well! How cool is that? So, for all of you reading this who were at the Chicago show on 11/14... thanks! I hope you enjoy the pics!

And to Dave and Jill... keep coming back to Chicago every year!

Click on the gallery below to see the images... also for those photographers here... they changed the lighting in this venue since last year and the white spots were set too low so I had to do some editing to keep the exposures between the guitars and the faces a bit closer. It was better the last couple of years. Also, all of these were shot with a Nikon D700, 24-70mm and 70-300mmVR lenses. (I was also really enjoying the show more and actually concentrated on shooting less... so that’s the reason for the pics being only from one side of the stage.)