What can I say about Steve Vai? If you know him, you know. If you don’t know him, words will never, and I do mean never, describe him sufficiently.
There are a lot of great musicians out there, but every now and again one comes along that changes the way music is made, the way an instrument is played…the guys that inspire countless others to pick up an instrument for the first time. Or to completely change the way they play if they’ve already picked up an instrument. Steve Vai is one of those musicians. He does things with a guitar that seem humanly impossible. And he does it with a fluidity that is unmatched in my not so humble opinion. Part Wizard, part alien, I dunno…
For me personally, this was a “bucket list” show. Thankfully the Mrs. was willing to indulge me and accompany me . While she acknowledges his genius and appreciates the skill, this one was strictly for me. That’s how you know you got a great one – when they will not only be open minded about the weird stuff you want to listen to, they’ll even sit through a concert of it!
We’ve been to Monterey a hundred times (it was our daughter’s favorite place as a kid!) but this was the first time at the Golden State Theater, in fact I’d never even heard of it until I saw this show coming up. It was nice enough, though nothing particularly noteworthy. I’d take a show there over San Francisco any day though.
The show opened with an onslaught and I was mesmerized.
I’ll be honest, I’m mostly familiar with his work with Public Image Ltd. and David Lee Roth and have had only 2 of his solo albums, so I couldn’t give you a breakdown of what songs he played, from which albums. Nonetheless, it was phenomenal playing from start to finish. His band, as you might expect was really top notch. His drummer in particular was very impressive and had a great sounding kit. (The crew obviously had a part in that, so hats off to them too!)
They played for a good two hours (!!!), which at that level of complexity is almost unbelievable. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes I’d have a hard time believing it! And seeing Mr. Vai play the “Hydra” – the 3-neck monstrosity pictured above – in a live setting? Worth every penny of the tickets AND the hour and a half drive, and then some!!
All in all, it was a spectacular experience and not one I’m soon to forget. And one more of my musical heros I get to cross off the list for seeing while I can. Thankfully I don’t have many left on that list – I’ve been fortunate to have seen most of them. Some I missed have sadly passed too soon (Stevie Ray, Eddy and Joe Strummer to name a few…) so now I’m taking every chance to see the greats before it’s too late and I’m very, very happy I finally got a chance to experience Steve Vai in the real world, I’ve never seen anything like it, and it was beyond exceptional!
Thanks for stopping by!
The Boring Old Man 