Steve Vai!

[atquinn]

Seriously.

Just keep listening.

Oh fine, go to 2:40 if you must.

-

Austin

[tbonesullivan]

Love his solos. Such a virtuoso. Always has been.

[Steve Haynie]

Skipped to 2:40.  Went back to 2:40 a few times, too. 

[sixesandsevens]

I've long said that he works better with constraints.  

I love me some Passion and Warfare, but I prefer his stuff with DLR in many cases.

[tbonesullivan]

2 minutes ago, sixesandsevens said:

I've long said that he works better with constraints.  

I love me some Passion and Warfare, but I prefer his stuff with DLR in many cases.

Most artists seem to work better with constraints, IMHO. He's an incredible musician, but a lot of his stuff is not as accessible.

[DBraz]

Superb.  I can imagine his wacky facial expressions while he played this.

[zorrow]

Great solo! I always loved Vai, though at some point I got bored and stopped following him closely. But yes, he is unique and extremely competent. Thanks for sharing!

[diablo175]

Interesting song... sounds like a mash up of Enya, any number of current pop singers and, well, Vai. Sadly, while his solo was a nice touch, it wasn't enough to rescue this from the never-play-this-again category.

 

 

[atquinn]

1 hour ago, diablo175 said:

Interesting song... sounds like a mash up of Enya, any number of current pop singers and, well, Vai. Sadly, while his solo was a nice touch, it wasn't enough to rescue this from the never-play-this-again category.

 

 

You apparently have never listened to much pop music. This is a synth wave homage to 80's pop complete with gratuitous shredding solo

-

Austin

[diablo175]

6 minutes ago, atquinn said:

You apparently have never listened to much pop music. This is a synth wave homage to 80's pop complete with gratuitous shredding solo

-

Austin

Good to know! I like to be able put a name to the stuff I'll never listen to again.

My labeling it "pop"  was based on the highly (overly?) processed vocals that you hear on a lot today's, er, music.

[HSB0531]

Well That was different.

I liked it.

[DBraz]

Reminds me a bit of the late 80's/early 90's when any self respecting pop song had a cracking guitar solo.

[ZR]

Anyone going to catch Generation Axe tour? It has Vai, Nuno Bettnecourt, Zack Wylde,Yngwie and Tosin Abasi;
http://generationaxe.com/

No real concert budget these days for me, but if they all play nice together it could be good for some. They each play a set, I think with some guest spots and then of course the big monster jam (with everyone playing over everyone!)...JK!

 

 

 

[atquinn]

13 hours ago, ZR said:

Anyone going to catch Generation Axe tour? It has Vai, Nuno Bettnecourt, Zack Wylde,Yngwie and Tosin Abasi;
http://generationaxe.com/

No real concert budget these days for me, but if they all play nice together it could be good for some. They each play a set, I think with some guest spots and then of course the big monster jam (with everyone playing over everyone!)...JK!

If you go, you'll get to see this!

I was interested in it for a second, but Tosin and Wylde don't do a hell of alot for me, so...

-

Austin

[tommy p]

On 4/8/2016 at 6:53 PM, sixesandsevens said:

I've long said that he works better with constraints.  

I love me some Passion and Warfare, but I prefer his stuff with DLR in many cases.

I like his playing with Alcatrazz and PIL too.

[atquinn]

I tend to think of the Alcatrazz album as Vai's second solo album

-

Austin

[diablo175]

14 minutes ago, atquinn said:

I tend to think of the Alcatrazz album as Vai's second solo album

-

Austin

I had such a man crush on Yngwie's blistering, precise playing in Alcatrazz that I found Vai's efforts as 2nd fiddle to be a slightly disappointing departure. This is noteworthy only because, as with back then, I still hold Vai's playing in much higher regard than Yngwie's.

[ZR]

Alcatraz ...under-rated! I liked Yngwie's work better there. 

[ZR]

7 hours ago, atquinn said:

If you go, you'll get to see this!

I was interested in it for a second, but Tosin and Wylde don't do a hell of alot for me, so...

-

Austin

Are they playing in front of a CGI Green screen with the standard 75 marshall head backdrop that most bands use?

Compilation vid...They played foreplay from Boston, that's pretty cool.

 

[atquinn]

Man, Nuno's so awesome.

-

Austin

[zorrow]

7 hours ago, diablo175 said:

I had such a man crush on Yngwie's blistering, precise playing in Alcatrazz that I found Vai's efforts as 2nd fiddle to be a slightly disappointing departure. This is noteworthy only because, as with back then, I still hold Vai's playing in much higher regard than Yngwie's.

 

3 hours ago, ZR said:

Alcatraz ...under-rated! I liked Yngwie's work better there. 

Ah!

Alcatrazz with Vai was awesome, mostly on the songwriting dept, but I liked it better with Yngwie. It didn't help that Vai used tapping to play Yngwie's solos live. It was a bit disappointing to the shred geek in me back then.

BTW, you probably knew Chris Impellitteri auditioned for Alcatrazz  after Yngwie's departure, but didn't get the gig. They favored Vai. Ironically, just a few years later Impellitteri formed his own band and hired Graham Bonnet to sing on their first LP. To me that album ("Stand In Line") sounded like the incarnation of Alcatrazz that should've happened and never did.

That's why I bet Alcatrazz would've lasted much longer with Impellitteri instead of Vai. However, at this point one can only speculate --which is what I'm actually doing right now.

[tommy p]

13 hours ago, zorrow said:

 

 

BTW, you probably knew Chris Impellitteri auditioned for Alcatrazz  after Yngwie's departure, but didn't get the gig. They favored Vai. Ironically, just a few years later Impellitteri formed his own band and hired Graham Bonnet to sing on their first LP. To me that album ("Stand In Line") sounded like the incarnation of Alcatrazz that should've happened and never did.

Never knew that!  I'll have to track that down.  I like the albums Graham Bonnet did with Rainbow, Alcatrazz, and MSG.

[zorrow]

33 minutes ago, tommy p said:

Never knew that!  I'll have to track that down.  I like the albums Graham Bonnet did with Rainbow, Alcatrazz, and MSG.

You'll love "Stand in Line" then! Have a listen to it online here:

 

[polara]

Like so many, I like what he adds to a non-guitar-shred-fest kind of song. He has a sense of melody and playfulness, like Paul Gilbert or EVH (not that they all sound the same but you know whaddimean?)

[diablo175]

Watching to this, I was able to get a sense of what each player was bringing to the table compared to the rest. Nuno's raw emotion, Vai's broad sonic musical vocabulary and Malmsteen's furious precision. Zakk left me thinking meh and Tosin did NOTHING for me based on this clip. Ironically, Vai's tone was arguably the least appealing of he 5, though Abasi's was close.