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Technically, I’m retired from this sort of thing (“covering” shows and uploading a pile of videos to YouTube), but I couldn’t resist the temptation to do it one last time for some truly mind-bending guitar wizardry from an old friend. Sorry, Reeves — what I meant to say was a friend whom I’ve known for a long time.<\/em><\/p>\n Reeves Gabrels<\/a><\/strong> has an impressive pedigree. Originally based in Boston, in the 1980s and 1990s, he was in several stellar and highly-regarded bands, including Life on Earth, The Dark, Rubber Rodeo, Atom Said<\/a><\/strong> (thanks, lazyelvis<\/a><\/strong>, all my stuff is analog), Bentmen<\/a><\/strong> and Modern Farmer. Although people might be a little more familiar with his later collaborations, David Bowie<\/a><\/strong> (starting with the brilliant Tin Machine<\/a><\/strong>) and The Cure<\/a><\/strong> (of which he is currently the lead guitarist). But on this night, Reeves was bringing his imaginary friends to a tiny but ferocious little dive bar in New Haven, Connecticut called Cafe Nine<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Cafe Nine looks like a cozy neighborhood corner bar, and it indeed is that, but from what I understand, it’s also a well-known venue for some rather formidible bands. The evening began with local boys The Outer Side (Jeff Maleri, Paul de la Reza and Ryan Boudreau). They were an enlightened choice of support act for Reeves and friends, as their guitarist is quite impressive as well, flying all over his instrument. Their set was in two halves, the first one being a marvelous prog rock, King Crimson-esque voyage to the beyond, and the latter half a harder punk set courtesy of their other guitarist\/bassist, who not coincidentally was wearing a Mission of Burma T-shirt.<\/p>\n