Damn near saw a Badlander go up in smoke this weekend. Well, it did smoke and fume and implode
a bit, but we were so far back I couldn't actually smell it. You could hear them during soundcheck
saying, "What's that smell?"
As soon as Captain Drop D hit the first chord on his PRS into the Badlander (on top of a Mesa 4 x 12)

I knew it was trouble. Had that gutless, thin, and raspy tone of power tubes failing. Saw the guitarist
lose signal a few times, then he goes behind the amp and starts playing with cables and who knows
what. I could sympathize with the state of panic. Something must have been done to make it worse,
because that is when the Badlander gave out completely.
It was the Headliner (killer young band of early 20 somethings throwing down!), and they ended up
borrowing, get this, a Peavey Vypyr Head (one of the tube powered ones) and it had the most Jack
White sounding Fuzz tone I have heard this side of Jack White. It was cool, and a bit different. Definitely
not a Badlander tone. But they powered through. Lead Singer kept the crowd entertained. They didn't
apologize or complain or make excuses. I was seriously impressed with how they handled it.
The other guitarist (lead) was a total Slash-fueled gunslinger. Played a Les Paul Standard into a Slash AFD
Marshall Full Stack. No lie. I was like, "Fuck yes, boys! Fuck yes!"
They had some great tunes. Think Guns n' Roses meets Queen meets Creed. And they jammed. No click
tracks. No backing tracks. No canned harmonies pumped in via computer. No BS. No smoke (apart from
the Badlander!! ) and mirrors.
Did my heart good to see.