Lethbridge got a double dose of acoustic  guitar wizardry from Australian  musician Daniel Champagne at the Slice last week.

 

 He is so popular that he added a second show as his first one sold out almost immediately.

 

 I caught the Sept. 16 show at the Slice.

 

 It was supposed to start at 7 p.m., but started late as a sold out crowd was forced to wait.

 

 Champagne was amazing, seamlessly combining intricate fingerpicking, cascades of harmonics and tapping all over his guitar’s body to create an array of rhythms and percusssion without missing a note.

 A lot of people were cheattering during his two sets, but Champagne was lost in his own world and didn’t seem to notice.

 But even retuning his guitar sounded beautiful.

 

 He added pleasantly pop inspired vocals and extra vocalizations on top of everything else.

 

He jumped about and pulled faces while playing  his immensely complex  music.

 

Champagne took a breath in between guitar pyrotechnics about how he had the guitar custom built and strengthened so battering it about wouldn't destroy it.

 

“ Back To Nova Scotia” was a highlight as he was moving a capo up and down his guitar’s neck without missing a beat or note.

 

He wound down his set with a tender ballad called “Through the Windshield,” which ended with a flurry of harmonics.

 

He ended his first set with  an acoustic version of Nirvana’s “Come As You Are,” for which he played the bass, rhythm and tapped out the beat.

 

The second set was a lot shorter but with a lot more experimentation. He played a long jam on Don McLean’s “ Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)”

 

 He bid the audience farewell as all of the acoustic guitarists in the audience went home to either practice or burn their guitars.

— by Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor