Steve Vai blows my socks off again!

axisus

fretmeister said:

I've seen him twice, both at the Astoria (RIP) .

They type of show performed is definitely influenced by the band he puts together.

First time had Mike Mangini on drums with Phil Bynoe on bass and Mike Keneally on guitar and keys.

2nd was Virgil Donati on drums with Billy Sheehan on bass, Dave Weiner on guitar and Tony MacAlpine on guitar and keys.

They had very different feels. Loved both shows. I still get the DVD out to watch every now and again (2nd one)

I also saw Vai with both those bands! Both excellent but I love it when Sheehan is there.

CaseOfAce

I've seen him twice in the past - first time was when he was with Devin Townshend - I remember Vai's amps going down mid set and he stood in front of 'em calmly whilst his tech sorted the problem out . 

The second time was on that hilarious G3 tour thing - Robert Fripp had just finished playing his Eno style ambient set sat off-stage to a clearly bemused and increasingly frustrated (and booing)  audience - Vai came on immediately after and went into full guitar hero / cheeseball shredder mode - there was a palpable sense of relief in the arena. This was what the crowd had paid money to come and see...

Personally I've always thought he was better when he was playing as part of a group - with David Lee Roth and yes .. Whitesnake... I have no wish to listen to extended versions of For The Love of God for 8 minutes...

axisus

CaseOfAce said:

Personally I've always thought he was better when he was playing as part of a group - with David Lee Roth and yes .. Whitesnake... I have no wish to listen to extended versions of For The Love of God for 8 minutes...

I certainly wouldn't say he was 'better' in bands (although the DLR music was brilliant!). I do think that you have to pick and choose his music though. I love some albums and don't love others. The live album he wrote with songs based on all the countries was fantastic.

I'd think I'd have died and gone to heaven with an extended version of For the love of God! Each to their own as they say ...

MagicPigDetective

He did do an 8-minute-ish version of For the Love of God..... though the last four minutes or so was him on his own making noises...... thought it was incredible. I could watch him play that song all night. I wouldn't want to see him with another band, with the focus on a singer, probably cheesey, run-of-the-mill rock lyrics... give me pure un-adulterated Vai

MagicPigDetective

Anyone else seen him? How was the gig @Vibetronic ?

Vibetronic

MagicPigDetective said:

Anyone else seen him? How was the gig @Vibetronic ?

Meant to post! It was great thanks - pretty sure they've done the same set everywhere from what I've seen, so a good mix of old and new, and he played as well as ever. It's the control he has over it at that volume which always gets me about him. I think as someone said he was still finding his way around the newer ones a bit - but they were great - and I did find the sound a bit harsh to begin with, although it got smoother throughout the evening. 

Only complaint is it was full of really tall, wide men (and I'm not short) - a lot of whom were filming most of it on their phones. Just try watching and listening!!!

ICBM

Vibetronic said:

I did find the sound a bit harsh to begin with, although it got smoother throughout the evening.

This is also a sure sign it was too loud unfortunately - probably the sound didn't change, but you were losing your top-end hearing.

ToneControl

ICBM said:

Very good . I do definitely prefer the more melodic stuff to the more riffy stuff, but it’s all very much ‘him’ despite the very different guitar.

Also shows how little difference there is in tone between a solidbody superstrat and a hollowbody archtop when you put a large amount of gain and compression on it. It wouldn’t actually have surprised me if he’d done some neck-bending trem-like effects either.

I play a hollowbody jazz box with OD sometimes, I'm surprised more people don't do it
It's nice how much like Steve Vai he sounds like on it, I'd assumed more of his style was dependent on the whammy bar

Vibetronic

ICBM said:

Vibetronic said:

I did find the sound a bit harsh to begin with, although it got smoother throughout the evening.

This is also a sure sign it was too loud unfortunately - probably the sound didn't change, but you were losing your top-end hearing.

It changed a bit throughout the gig imo - when he did some older stuff it was a lot less harsh, but changed back again a bit later. I didn't think it was too loud overall. It was my first time having a couple of beers out for about a year and a half though, so that might have helped

digitalkettle

Some selective footage from the Dublin show:

DefaultM

I didn't go this time, but the full Manchester gig is on YouTube and it sounds like he was having an off night. Building The Church intro for example.

Axe_meister

His London gig was his favourite so far from what I heard, she certainly seemed to be enjoying himself