Steve Vai is God!

Last wednesday the 11th my pals Yorch, Juanito and I went to an exceptional concert: Steve Vai's Sound theories tour '07.



(I apologize for the pic's quality but I only had my Qtek with me... Besides, there are official pics about. See the links)

You guys know I've been a Steve Vai fan since his Passion and Warfare, the record that made him "famous" (in the world of rock and virtuous guitars) and, whenever I can and I know about it, I go to his concerts, and those of his teacher: Joe Satriani. Many would argue but I consider them to be the apex of electric guitar playing .

Steve Siro Vai, american of italian ascent, was born on June 6th, 1960 (11 days and 13 years before I was) in Carle Place, New York and, as the legend goes, in 1978 he turned up at his fiend and teacher-to-be home with a new electric guitar and a set of strings and showing them he said "please teach me to play the guitar". Today, I think it's safe to say the pupil has outdone his teacher.

After studying at Berkley and working in multiple projects and bands, amongst which was his famous joining with Frank Zappa (nice story there, since he started working for him transcribing his impossible compositions... not an easy task...), lately he's more dedicated to composing. I say lately, since he seems to be seriously exploiting that facet, with an orchestra and everything. According to his own words, he feels more of a composer than a guitarist.

I, personally, "met" him through TV, at the famous Sevilla guitar concert of '92 where, during 4 (or 5) days, there were guitar concerts, divided in styles: classical, flamenco, jazz, rock... It was in this last one, the "night of the crazy guitars" as named by the celebrity presenter/collaborator, Brian May. He started off with "liberty", followed by "the audience is listening" but the arrow struck with "For the love of God", a piece I've spent years analyzing, studying and trying to emulate (failing miserably, of course...). With him I've learned about tapping, false harmonics, fast picking and of course, feedbacks and duets. With him I understood what a floating tremolo (or Flkoyd Rose) was, a concept that has taken me to choose my new guitar... but that is for a different blog entry. Lets go back to the other day's concert.

the concert was one of the best I've ever been to. It was almost three hours though he didn't play alone. As a starter, a boy came out, which I'm sure is one of Vai's apprentices. The audience didn't know what to make of his extravaganza of this apprentice namedZack Wiesinger. His eclectic style, however, is loaded with technique, good rythm sense and lots of talent. We'll have to keep track of him.

Of course, Vais's entrance was, to say the least, spectacular. The whole place dissapeared under a cloud of smoke and we saw a green glow appear, which later we discovered is his new guitar, with a translucent tinted body with LEDs on the inside, blazing chords of The Animal. Shortly after, he took out the Mojo (almost this one), with blue leds instead of fretboard dots... to poor Yorch's dismay who had to look away because he got dizzy ;-)

The star of the night, however, was his famed modified JEM7VWH modificada similar to this one. The "original" is sold for a mere 2500 euros, but his guitar has a few improvements which he showed on the hing, together with his usual showmanship, blowing onto the strings to create a feedback during a solo (effect which I spoiled for poor Yorch by telling him he was doing it "artificially" by pressing on a button near the bridge. The button enables a component called the Fernandes Sustainer).

The staging was simple but effective and pleasing. However, (please excuse the pun) the proberbial cherry on the cake was the new violinist (of classical training) Ann Marie Calhounque, which, as Vai put it "Hey! I know how to pick'em" (please look up). The girl, though clearly shy, really gives a new flavour to Vai's sound (though I think Alex dePue was who the one recorded in the album).

The climax of the evening was during the performance of "Whispering a prayer", during a pause in the track in which the audience gave him a over-4-minutes stand-up ovation (I kid you not) during which Mr. Vai's face was a poem. It was only a show of what he makes us feel though his music.

The concert's full kit was:

Jeremy Colson: drum kit and all sorts of things that you hit. (not so new member either)
Dave Weiner: Rhythm guitar, sitar, acoustic guitar and smile. (The longest member besides Steve)
Bryan Beller: Bass and impossible ears.
Alex DePue: Electric and acoustic violin, keyboards, the new fast fingers.
Ann Marie Calhoun: Electric and acoustic violin, Viola, Banjo and keyboards, confidence personified.
Zack Wiesinger: Solo opening act guitar extravaganza and perhaps a few saxophone honks here and there with the band.

The comments on the official site

Addendum that struck very near home: We saw a little green thing next to the neck pickup which we though was a pick store, but lo and behold, it's a piece of tape that is there to prevent the string from getting stuck when he plays it as it apparently did frequently. This can be seen here. The VERY SAME THING happens to me with my Ibanez guitar. I HAVE SOMETHING IN COMMON WITH STEVE VAI!! (needless to say, I will place a bit of tape on my guitar. Great idea, Steve!)