Steve Vai is the guitarist, who everyone knows, some people admire him, some hate him, telling, that the music he plays sucks and that it is boring. I really admire Steve Vai and his guitar playing, but it should be said that some of his music is really difficul to listen to. My Guitar teacher said a very good phrase, that the technique must be your tool, but not your aim. Steve Vai does the opposite, he always needs to shred to show his great technique, and sometimes it is not needed at all.
The show at Astoria is an example of constant shredding. I really like shredders like Paul Gilbert or Joe Satriani but none of their shows is so difficult to watch as Steve's. To begin with, I must say that Steve Vai managed to gather a "dream team". Let's start with Dave Weiner, who is very young but who is already a guitar-virtuoso. Then goes Tony MacAlpine, who is also another guitar-virtuoso, but during this concert he also played keyboards. He also plays solo at the concert, which shows his great skills of a keyboard player. Billy Sheehan, "Van Halen, who plays the bass" also is another star. And Virgil Donati plays drums.
As you see the Steve Vai's band consits only of great musicians. Is it good or bad? Both, actually. You will see great instruments-playing, but you know all of the members want play at their best, very fast, playing some difficult patterns. But it's really difficult to watch it for three hours. I felt exhausted after watching the show.
As for the songs, Vai made a good choice and he plays not only his best songs like "The Crying Machine" or "For the Love of God", he also plays a couple of songs by Jimi Hendrix. Fire and Little Wing to be exact. Steve Vai is actully not a bad singer. You can also hear Billy Sheehan's song "Shy Boy". And a song from Billy Sheehan's solo album "Compression" "Chameleon".Steve Vai and Billy have a duel, both are playing incredibly fast. Dave Weiner plays song from his solo album "Dave Weiner's party piece", but during the most part of the concert he is only a rhythm guitarist. Tony MacAlpine also comes out and plays guitar. By the way, Tony MacAlpine's guitar playing is not worse than Steve Vai's . There are a lot of songs from one of Steve Vai's best albums "Passion and Warfare". You can hear relatively new " Whispering a Prayer" which was nominated for Grammy. So the fans of Steve Vai will be really pleased to see their favourite Steve Vai's songs.
There will be a great variety of musical styles on the DVD. You can hear funky "The Crying Machine", heavy metal "Chameleon" or "Bad Horsie", some ballads like "Blue Powder", some rock and roll "Erotic Nightmares". On the whole, the melodies are very catchy, the riffs are great. The ballads are really beautiful.
Also Steve Vai is the man, who has a good sense of humour. He is constantly joking. He is also speaking with the crowds almost after each song he plays. He is also changing his clothes. For example, for "the heavy-metal section of the show", he puts on clothes, which is similar to the clothes of soe troops fromm different games like "Dune" or something.
In conclusion, I'd like to say that i would really recommend this DVD to all the Steve Vai fans, and to the fans of guitar music, who also play guitar. You will see the incredible playing of the musical instruments. Non-musicians will be really bored to watch the show. But musicians may also be bored to watch the show, because of the fact I've
already mentioned.
