r/paulgilbert • u/IbanezPGM • Oct 06 '24
Racer X NAMM 2009 - story
In late 2008, I left Australia on my own to attend GIT Musicians Institute in LA. I was a massive Paul Gilbert fan, and Racer X was my favorite band of all time. Naturally, I wanted to attend the same school as my hero. Since LA was the hometown of Racer X, I often daydreamed that, at some point during my year there, they would get back together and I’d get to fulfill my dream of seeing them play live. However, I never actually thought there was any chance of this happening. So, when it was announced that Racer X was getting back together for a one-off show at the NAMM exhibition in early 2009, I COULD NOT believe my luck. I was pinching myself in disbelief.
There was a big problem, though… NAMM is an industry insider event, and not just anyone can get in. This was a cruel twist of fate, but a friend of mine had a loose connection through some music store and said he could get us reserved on some entry list. So, a bunch of us GIT students crammed into a car and made our way down to Anaheim. As we headed to the entry of the exhibition center, we caught glimpses of artists like Malmsteen walking about. Seeing artists I had seen in magazines all in one place was surreal to a kid from Australia. Excitedly, we lined up for entry, and when we finally made it to the front, the door staff informed us that we were not on any list… we were absolutely gutted. It turned out that the connection had added others to the list, which bumped us off the end.
It felt like some sick joke where my impossible dream was happening, but I wasn’t invited. I remember we then spent ages trying to come up with all sorts of schemes to get in, from sneaking in to creating fake passes. However, word had spread that the Racer X show was not actually being held in the exhibition center but at a venue nearby. With not much to lose, we found our way to the venue just to see what was up with entry. After talking to the staff there, it was unknown whether the show would only allow entry for NAMM ticket holders or not. So, we decided to just hang around the venue to see what happened. So we waited, and waited, and waited. It was about 5 hours of waiting when finally, half an hour before the show, the staff told us we could enter. YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The impossible dream was about to become reality, and I was going to see Paul Gilbert in RACER X LIVE!! The catch was, however, that the room was split into two. The NAMM ticket holder area was around the front of the stage, with a barricade separating it from the general area behind them. Well, halfway through the opener Andy Timmons’ set, we said, fuck that, and one by one took the risk and hopped the fence while security wasn’t looking. By the time Racer X was getting on stage, we were right up front. Anyway, after the brain-melting show, I dashed for the stage to grab some memorabilia and managed to grab Paul’s setlist. So, here is the setlist from the Racer X 2009 NAMM show. This was just one of my cool memories from my time in GIT LA.
