APRIL 20th 2026
THE ARISTOCRATS

 Review By: Dmitry Sukhinin

No photos in today’s report - different priorities. You will have to imagine how it was. I am here, since when The Aristocrats come to your city, you go to see them, there are no other options. 

Look at the lineup. Does it tell you anything? If not, I have really bad news for you: you need to shape up. 

I first heard of Marco Minnemann around 15+ years ago when someone sent me a drum video of a live song of Necrophagist with their new stand-on drummer: “Look, this is a jazz drummer playing Necrophagist”. Marco is a multi-instrumentalist and I recommend checking his solo works too. 

Guthrie Govan is one of the biggest names of the guitar world - in a real sense. You can find him playing Hans Zimmer, he cooperated with Steven Wilson. Youtube also has loads of videos where he does insanely cool things - it seems like he does not even need his right hand with a pick to play solos - his left hand - pure legato playing. 

And Bryan Beller on bass? Joe Satriani, Dethklok, Mike Keneally, Steve Vai, James LaBrie of Dream Theater and Dweezil Zappa. 

Damn, what a lineup, right??

Today the club is a former old cinema, the charming Cosmopolite. Since it is a very prog evening, the average age seems to be 60. There is no warm-up, which is very nice. Good sound and a sharp guitar for the start, the band is opening with songs from their new album “Duck”. They say it is conceptual. Black meta? Maybe - since, as we hear, the story includes penguins. 

The Aristocrats is an instrumental band, so someone needs to be talking to make it more entertaining and Bryan is awesome in doing this. If you have paid attention since the establishment in 2011, the music has always been some kind of tricky ironic musical sketches. Minnemann's song is about a duck having trouble with the penguin police. Since the band had a penguin budget (“this is because we play instrumental music”), the merch is quite simple, as they say, - and Guthrie demonstrates some plush doll.  On the fourth song Marco asks their greek sound guy Dimitris to pitch his voice so it sounds death metal while announcing Sittin’ With a Duck on a Bay.  

Then comes the song Spanish Eddie and as Guthrie says, it has the same name as another highly successful song. “Let me tell you about that song instead”. Not only was Laura Branigan more successful commercially, but also the long story was worth telling - we heard it, but I let you check it out yourself. “As for us… the song has this riff”, - Guthrie plays a bar, - “I thought: well, that sounds Spanish… so, this is my story”. 

I really enjoy the music, and sudden quotes like “Sweet Child O’ Mine”. A lot of parts are surely improvised, Bryan really shines with the lot register, and Marco has fantastic drum sounds and very nice use of bells on top of his crashes. Guthrie is fantastic too, I have no words to express. Masters! 

Then comes a drum solo - very long. You cannot avoid it when you have such a drummer, right? 
Marco is downtuning his toms during the solo. There is a piece where we recognize “20th Century Fox“ musical intro. 

It is an evening of stories. The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde is from Bryan about his stolen instruments (a real one), the thieves were caught but the instruments are gone forever. 

The Aristocrats do not have many straight moments - there are a lot of changes of accents and tempos, and the power trio hit each other precisely. How???

Oh well. This evening was a massive gathering - an enormous concentration of talent. Hats off, this was very entertaining.