THE DRAGON TAMER

Simon McBride's fire-breathing tube tones power a new era of Deep Purple.

- JUDE GOLD

NO GAFF TAPE marks on the stage are necessary for Simon McBride - he always remembers where the sweet spot is. Alone under the lights for his big guitar cadenza each night with Deep Purple - and just after kicking on a Tube Screamer to make his white-hot guitar tone a few degrees hotter he moves to that invisible X, hits a single note high up on the fretboard, and, with zero vibrato, gets it to sustain infinitely. When a shimmering overtone emerges from within the sound, the endless note becomes all the more prismatic. It grabs your ears the way a laser beam shooting up into the night sky attracts your eyes.

It's an old trick, but, after watching McBride do it flawlessly at 16 different arenas all over Europe last fall (I was playing with the support band, Jefferson Starship), I can report that I've never seen anyone do it more hypnotically. It's mesmerizing. Rather than seeming gimmicky, it comes off as heartfelt and part of a grander musical statement.

Next, McBride suddenly jumps up to a high-altitude F-major scale pattern, and, starting on the highest A on the highest string, blazes down an octave and a half of the shape as fast as possible, repeating the dazzling maneuver again up a half step, and then again up another half step, and so on. The notes whiz by faster than tracer bullets. It's thrilling to experience, and it incites roars of delight from each new audience.

Standing at the monitor board after taking in McBride's many guitar solos each night, Donny Baldwin the veteran, multi-Platinum drummer in my band - turned to me and said, "Damn, that dude plays with so much emotion!" I agree. Whether McBride is playing slowly or quickly, I still feel each note.