It was another cold December night here in the Northeast. I had my film crew with me and we were headed to The Middle East in Cambridge to see Luis Gomez play with his Berklee Bob Marley Tribute Ensemble.
I met Luis briefly at a gig earlier this year. Since we had just released our new models, I invited him over to the studio to try them out and take a look at our shop. The visit went great, more so that I let him borrow one of our new guitars to play on stage for this gig.
As we walked in, we settled on a corner and started setting up the video equipment. Luis was busy playing the first set of the night, but after all was arranged and the band took a break, he came up and said hi to the crew. It was a very brief 20-minute break and they were back on stage for the second set. Here is where the fun part began.
Luis got his Gallo Runner and got up on stage. Nobody knew it, but they were in store for a big surprise. For the first songs, Luis played it with the lights off since he was mainly playing rhythm guitar. The band had made remarks earlier in the day about how much they liked the new guitar, but they didn’t know all it could do. Then it was time for fun. A new song started and Luis had a cool guitar solo for this one. Him and the band breezed from melody to melody and then it was time for Luis’ solo.
All the instruments started modulating and the spotlight was on Luis and his guitar. Even the singers stepped aside to let him play. As the band turned their attention towards Luis, the magic started happening. Luis played lick after lick and with it came a burst of colorful lights that nobody knew about. This moment was very exciting for me to see, since I could see the band trying to turn around and peek at was happening behind them, as well as seeing the audience go crazy about his guitar as well.
The gig only kept getting better. The band played classic after classic, getting people off their feet and dancing all over the place until the last song was over. As for us, we kept scrolling around with our cameras to capture the spirit of such a beautiful moment.
– Jose Gallo–
