who is not all that crazy about Mike's solos? I mean, I know nothing about playing the guitar, and it looks like the stuff he plays is difficult, but after about 10 seconds, i'm bored. I guess it's not so much a mike thing as it is that i don't like those kind of solos in general.

no you're not.

I actually like his playing on the new album, great speed and loseness. he was better back in the day, hes too restrained for the most part. he was boring on the riot act tour.

i really love the input he brings to the band's sound and compositions but i'm not a fan of his solos, neither of his stereotyped stage poses when he goes wild on a lead - i mean, it's been done before, a lot. i think a lot of notes get lost in a sea of notes you know - not everyone is jimi hendrix, right?
but he's been brilliant on many occasions - i'm not a boot maniac so i'll go from the cd's:
alive
immortality
all or none
severed hand
nothing as it seems
life wasted
red mosquito
brain of j
sad
and he's a total wanker on others:
why go
go
comatose
big wave
corduroy live
even flow...
and most of the time i'm just indifferent - a very gifted musician who should spend more time building his lead parts - he could be one of the greats if he showed a little more restraint
just my o

no, you're definitely not the only one. Often, the word 'cliche' comes to mind. and the rockstar poses don't help.

I'd actually go so far as to say he's the least interesting guitarist in the band. Ed comes up with some beautiful picking and writes a lot of the interesting riffs and Stone is just great to watch as he adds layers and different levels to the sound and too seldom gets to add a really interesting solo. They're not as *obvious*, but much more unique.

Bah!

Mike is incredible and I think his songwriting input to PJ confirms that more than his awesome guitar playing.

I've posted this previously but check out this list of writing or co-writing credits:

Let Me Sleep
Yellow Ledbetter
State Of Love And Trust
Glorified G
Tremor Christ
Present Tense
Brain Of J.
Faithfull
Given To Fly
Light Years
Down
Comatose
Marker In The Sand
Unemployable
Come Back
Inside Job

The guy's unstoppable.

I also think his guitar playing has improved dramatically since the early days. I'd agree that his stuff is largely cliched classic rock riffing early on however he's come so far since...I think he's been incredible since 2000 onwards. He definitely reached a new level that year, I think he's incorporating a lot more stuff into his playing from that time onwards and not relying on his trusty old 70's rock-isms.

I love when he delves into some crazy Hendrix meets Sonic Youth feedback and can just as quickly pull out some riffs that make your jaw drop...

BTW: I hate, hate, hate his moustache from 1992-1994. Worst PJ fashion decision ever, I even prefer Ed's mohawk.

you're not the only one, but I love his stuff. One of the more emotive guitarists I've ever heard.

anyone who posts in this thread should be an honorary Stone's Bitch.

The guy is responsible for my top-3 songs ever, so not a bad word about him and absolutely not about his songwriting.

But yes... his solo's... I do think this year has seen an improvement again, but last year... most of the times especially during Even Flow (& Corduroy) he would just hold one note and let it ring endlessly. It got quite boring after a while.

I'm not a big fan of any guitar solos, so count me in. Some of are cool, but overall it's bleh.

dont forget all night

thats a pretty sweet solo

the only thing that moves me as much as ed's voice is mike's guitar. his song writing is great too. i love just about everything he's ever done in pj

mike has some really great solos, but they seem to be mostly pentatonic scales which are pretty common and simple in structure. on record he's got killer stuff with the right effects going on... live its either hit or miss. he could butcher even flow and nail alive in the same show. i just like the fact that he takes risks in concert based on what he's feeling from the crowds.

agreed...but i love the simplicity and emotion (yellow ledbetter?)
its not about the technical aspect for me...but...in concert sometimes just the sound is wrong or shitty for whatever reason...ie-east ruth 06 night 3 there was almost no distortion and it killed the solos and allot more but when the venue and the sound techs come together specialness can happen during his solos...tho it seems listening to the boots they always sound/feel better because they're clearer and not so loud and you can hear more of the subtleties in there ie-hartford this year i was on stones side and could hardly hear mike and thought at the show he was soloing pretty crappy until i heard the boot and it surprised me the stuff i missed at the show just because of my location (ten club seats 15 rows back on the floor but certainly no complaints about that)...ok im done

I'd have his babies just for Yellow Ledbetter, SOLAT, Faithfull, Brain of J, Given To Fly and Inside Job. He's the reason I still play guitar.

Live, he's one of the more fun band members to watch as well. Some of his solos do verge on wankery, but after Black and Crazy Mary in Antwerp, well, he's pretty spectacular, and in the studio he's untouchable. I don't think any of his on the record leads are less than perfect.

His album solos are top notch in my opinion, and live he has been one of the greatest of all time. 2000 and 98 are amazing years for Mikes soloing, I havn't heard much prior to those years though. 2003 Was not bad either. However, I feel that as of lately its almost like he is overly self-concious about his soloing. Like he feels on the spot and he can't get into the groove. So they end up suffering from this, and receive a lack of creativity. I think it has a lot to do with them getting older and now they have all this "legendary" history that they feel they must live up to. Well, in my opinion all the have to live up to is the present moment. I hear people raving a lot about Grand Rapids, and it is a good show, but Mikes solo work during the 1st encore is not very good. Around the bend and Off He Goes suffer. Its almost hard for me to listen to it, because I know he has it in him to play straight from his heart and soul but I feel like he just hasn't been this year. I would take a still standing Mike that screams notes from his soul far before I would accept this hip rock star, points at everybody, overly-active Mike that can't seem to find the notes. (Is he really pointing at anybody particular or just pretending?) I love ya Mikey, rip and roar for us on these last few Aussie shows. I'm rootin for you. peace.

I'm not big into guitar solos and his posing at times doesn't help- I think with a guitarist, it's about being able to put your all into the play- Maybe Mike can do more of that than he's doing now but I believe he is good

i love the ledbetter solo on record and it sounds awesome live when he doesn't kill it by changing songs. if he's gotta throw in a riff from another song, how about transposing it so its the same key and doesn't sound as bad to the ear? i agree about east rutherford this year. the 06/03/06 show was fucking awesome and its gotta be THE WORST sounding boot of that leg. i had a buddy sit in virginia beach on stone's side, me and my friends were on mike's and after the show he said "so, did mike solo at all or what?" cause all he heard was stone. that is the great thing about boots though. every nuance you missed from singing along or bad acoustics, whatever... its all captured there for ya. god bless headphones.

I like most of the songs listed above but I'm not that big into guitar solos. I think he's good but wouldn't consider him guitar diety. He has his moments but they all do. He does seem to the one that enjoys performing the most on any given night but sometimes that energy is expressed in Rock 101 cliches. I think that's more of a problem to us hardcore fans than the casual ones though.

you really think he's posing?

i think he's having a fucking great time and enjoying the show

i agree sometimes the notes get lost in a sea of notes... great way to put it


but i don't think he's ever posing.... he's making love to the guitar and not worrying how fucked up his face looks as he orgasms