We took a trip to Anaheim, CA, for the annual NAMM Show. An extravaganza of musical instrument displays, incredible concerts, educational panels and so much more, NAMM allows attendees to get up close and personal with what’s going on with the gear, artists and people that are integral to the music-making industry.

The show is too big for any one person to catch it all, but we thought that sharing some highlights might give you a bit of insight into what makes NAMM such a high-energy show.

(Pictured above, ArtistWorks VP John Graves, Paul Gilbert, ArtistWorks CEO Patricia Butler)

The She Rocks Awards

Friday night we popped over to the She Rocks Awards, an event honoring women in music hosted by the Women’s International Music Network. It was an unbelievable evening of once-in-a-lifetime performances by top names like Gloria Gaynor, Lzzy Hale (Halestorm), Tal Wilkenfeld, Suzi Quatro, Beatie Wolfe and more. The moving speeches brought the audience to the brink of tears many times over. It was inspiration to the max!

Above: Suzi Quatro performs at the She Rocks Awards. Photo by Diane Webb

Nathan East on the NAMM Grand Stage

Bassist extraordinaire Nathan East took the main stage on Saturday night joining Earth, Wind and Fire in a set that brought the funk to the massive crowd. The energy was undeniable!

Above: Verdine White and Nathan East on the NAMM Grand Stage

Paul Gilbert Says Hello

Popping into several stops, guitarist Paul Gilbert was on hand to check out new gear and say hello to fans. He’s got a new album coming out in June called, Werewolves of Portland. We can’t wait! 

Above: Paul Gilbert stops by the Ibanez booth

D’Addario New Gear and Live Performances

D’Addario had a slew of live performances in their booth as they introduced several new accessories including their very cool and useful microphone stand accessories system. We need one of those right now!

Above: The new D’Addario microphone stand accessories system.

Positive Grid Spark

We stopped by the Positive Grid booth to check out Spark, a new amp and app that has been getting a lot of buzz. It seems super fun to use and a great little amp for practicing guitar, bass and acoustic. The app also does things like letting you change the amp and effect models on the fly, creates a backing track for you automatically and more. Plus you can stream your music through it with Bluetooth. Pretty cool.

NAMMimals as Leaders

We caught progressive tech metal band Animals as Leaders (filling in for Sarah McLachlan, believe it or not!) perform at the NAMM Foundation Celebration for Music Education on the Yamaha Grand Plaza Stage. A mind blowing show! 

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