It was Frontline promoter who bet on him again confirming Barcelona, Almeria,
Murcia and Bergara dates with the final performance in Madrid introducing not
only a new record but a new band… Last tour Sheehan, Macalpine and Vai formed
the «cord trio», and now we have Bryan Beller on the bass, and instead of Macalpine
playing rhythm guitar and keyboards we have Alex DePue and Ann Marie Calhoun
as electric (and acoustic) violinist and keyboardist.
Always wanting to innovate within his style, and taking into account the record
label’s context of the tour, Mr. Vai opted for two violins instead of another
guitar this time, supposing that with the intention of giving a symphonic and/or
orchestral ambiance to his songs, apart from making various technical «approaches»
to them. Risky changes, as we have said, but we will see if they work or not
at the end of the concert.
It was strange that after a few weeks before the tour they still didn’t know
if there was going to be opening band or not. But a few days later they begin
announcing in chat rooms and other media that Zack Wiesinger was going to join
the tour, Steve’s well-known, young instrumentalist friend who will be in charge
of opening the shows every night.
Anyway, after picking up our press pass and entering Razzmatazz, we could wait
to find out who Zack Wiesinger was. After waiting a while and the introduction
by one of Steve’s team members, Wiesinger came on stage.
Far from thinking that there would be a whole band, a languid guy with a big
pompadour, armed with his Stratocaster stood before more that a thousand people,
us included. You have to admit that Vai made a good choice, it was an ideal
match, since he demonstrate the same eccentricities, such us the fact that he
opens his show with an electric version of «The Pink Panther» theme.
After introducing himself to the audience he started to play somw of his own
songs, showing himself d his technique off. It was amazing seeing how without
a guitar pick he could play so fast, reminding us to people like Stevie Ray
Vaughan for example… in his minishow we had time to see him play various different
styles… classic rock, blues, even a few country chords or moreover some sang
songs to which he told us to sing along with him. There was some funny songs
which i couldn’t identify which show they belong to, but except for that as
i already said a lot of technique, eccentricities and a lot of agility for this
young musician who will surely set people talking.
After a little bit more than 25 minutes of performance, and with some laughter
from the audience, Zack left Razzmatazz’s stage, anouncing the imminent performance
and so waited for the audience of Mr. Vai and his guys.
After a short performance of Mr. Wiesinger the main sound equipment of that
night needed to be changed and tried, and so it was… Zack’s performance could
have been a bit longer and so the one hour waiting would have been less tedious,
because people started to desperate with all the try outs… But when the lights
went out all reproaches faded away…
Among the smoke and the blue lights, the band jumped to the stage at a time
while the audience shouted in unison, and so the show started as the previous
ones in this tour, with «Now we run», from the «Elusive light and sound Vol.
1» album. Another peculiarity of this tour is that for the shows Vai plays some
unreleased songs which he doesn’t play very often, and so it was this first
one.
It’s a very complete song, and because of it being fast we can notice several
rythms and techniques throught it, it amazed not only its solid base between
guitars and drums, but also some changes of rythm which made violins take part
in the song. Here we could see the first problem of the violins in the whole
intrumental part, they couldn’t be properly heard in those first strong tones,
because all the sound was mainly led by the powerful base of guitars and Colson’s
drums.
«Oooo» was the next song to be heard, with no introduction and almost joined
to the precious song we thought it was the same. A track from «The Ultra Zone»
which was recalled for this tour and as previously said, it had the same rythm
as the previous one… Very fast, the rest of the band members interacted very
much on this one and the technique showed by Steve Vai was great, and he also
played with a commemorative guitar of Ibañez’s 25 anniversary.
New wave of aplauses for his guys and the well know guitarist, who wanted to
calm down the sonic atmosphere that ruled the show… The blue lights ruled
again the Razmatazz’s stage and the emotive and sensual «Tender surrender» started
to sound. Then, «Alien Love Secrets» ‘s turn, with that jazz base performed
by Steve Vai with lots of feeling and some improvizations, played along with
a very sensual and calmed rythm base as we said before. Time now for the feedback
with the audience, introducing the bandmembers with the new signings… Ann
and Alex in charge of the violins, Brian playing the bass, Colson on the drums
and the «hairy» Dave Weiner on the synths. Steve didn’t talk to the audience
before until that moment, and he started to tell his typical jokes and introduced
the next song.
There were some jokes such as reciting in a poetic way the onomatopoeic intro
of «Firewall», the next one to be played: back to the latest Steve’s studio
album, «Real Illusions» to perform this song which wasn’t played in the previous
tour, the one presenting that album. A weird song, close to pop in vocals lines
but with lots of tecniques and improvization from Vai. From one side of the
stage came the guitar with leds in its neck to let the audience know that next
song to be played would be «Building The Church», also extracted from the last
album with that Ann and Alex’s joint part on the keyboards, and Vai with his
very fast guitar. It also must be said that those had to perform some ritmic
guitar parts with their violins and face Vai in their technical «fights».
During the whole show there was room for the personal showing off of every
band member, and the first one was Weiner, who delighted the audience with his
skills on the 6 strings at the very beginning of the show. Another good point
was the incredible set of lights used on stage, which was crucial at some points
as for example the beginning of «I’m Becoming»… Vai started t use his slow
and atmospheric chords, the perfect intro for the song. Again the great collaboration
of the violins, mixing with Vai to infer the song with elegance and moderation.
More from «Real Illusions» with the next one, «Freak Show Excess», a song in
which every single member took a very important part, because there were a lot
of very quick changes of rythm.
«Die to Live» was another live-unreleased song, which was performed in a very
outstanding way, like the previous ones taken from «Alien Love Secrets», and
which gave the sensible side back to the show. It was now Ann and Alex who had
their time to play their solo violin’s part, the first one very classic and
the second more improvised, they «fought» on the Razzmatazz’s stage, and in
a very curious way… they both ended with a Mozart’s classical piece, the same
fragment Steve Vai plays in the movie «Crossroads».
Time for the acoustic part of the show, which was way more dynamic than the
one in the previous tour and with less ballads than that time. This time, only
Vai was sitting in a stool, and it was he who started the set with a little
improvization with a very subtle Ann Marie, and then he linked it with «All
about Eve»… One of the most emotional moments of the show was seeing Steve
Vai giving himself in to his emotions only with his accoustic and no other to
play along with him. More acoustic songs came, such as «Lucky Charms», «Light
of the moon» or a new improvization with Alex, violin and guitar together…
As a dynamic point to the concert, Jeremy Colson came on stage with a percusión
set hanging from his neck, very weird, decorated with skulls, bells, samples,
etc… The typical gag that was also performed in the previous tour was done
this time, and so «Angel Food» was played, fragment from «Fire Garden Suite»,
where instead of a piano following Vai we had Colson’s drums doing the part,
very impressive.
Vai left the stage once again to change his outfit, as he did several times
that night, and so Colson showed himself off. There’s not much to explain about
how strong he plays the drums, with a lot of power and quality, which he offered
to the audience in his solo, where he played with the already recorded samples
to give some variety to his performance.
The band as a whole came back to the stage to perform the ending of the concert,
starting with «The Murder» and «Juice». On the first one we could hear again
the violins, guitars and so on, but on the second one on the contrary we could
only listen to Vai-Beller and Colson, being this song the first one that provided
the audience with a bassist at the centre of the stage being the main figure
along with Vai, while he had being quite hidden and shy the previous minutes.
They were mixing this with the calmness of «Whispering a prayer», the eternal
an mythical ballad, which could be heard on Vai’s guitar through the Razzmatazz’s
loudspeakers… He played it with a lot of feeling and emotion, receiving a
large amount of aplausses from the crowd, he also offered some improvizations
to make it slightly different.
Bringing back another piece of «Fire Garden Suite», the solemn «Taurus Bulba»,
with its complex instrumental development, it was played perfectly by everyone,
mainly because the concert was coming to an end and they all felt now more confident
than before, the violins went back to the ritmic parts, keyboards, change of
rythm… something near to «prog» with all those changes and difficulty.
The show was coming to its end and this meant the magical Vai’s trio was about
to come… Frsrt one, «Liberty», which made the audience to give in to the hymns,
very thrilling, melodic and more symphonic than before thanks to Ann Marie and
Alex’s strings. Change of style with «The Attitude Song», which has also being
covered for the last album with the Holland’s Metropolitan Orchestra. But here
in Barcelona we could listen to it in a more direct way, more enjoyable and
lively, matching with the end of the party.
Steve was the one in charge of lower the whole of the sound created from the
previous song, leaving the drums along with the bass until silence came… and
from the left side of the stage came Ann Marie, playing with her violin the
intro for «For the Love of God», moving the audience and an ovation could be
heard from them. There we had it again, a great song which has quickness, technique,
feeling, anger, power and more elegance thanks to the string’s section in the
band, a very exquisite ending for sure.
He did it again, Vai kept on introducing his songs and his band, even knowing
all the risks implied, like some troubles with the sound at some points and
some insecurity from Brian basically, because the band’s quite new; but all
in all with some more concerts these errors will be solved. To your feet, Mr.
Vai.
Text & photos: David A.
Translation: Leticia Ballester
IF
YOU WANT TO SEE THE PICS WITH MORE RESOLUTION, CLICK ON IT OR CLICK THIS LINK
TO GO TO OUR ALBUM.
ENLACES RELACIONADOS:
Set-list Steve Vai – Barcelona, 5th July 2007:
1.-Now we run
2.-Oooo
3.-Tender Surrender
4.- Band Intro
5.-Fire wall
6.- Building the Church
7.- Dave’s Solo
8.- I´m Becoming
9.-Freak Show Excess
10.- Die to Live
13.-Violin Solo’s
14.- Intro Steve Vai Solo
15.- Annie And Steve
16.-All about Eve
17.- Steve Vai Solo ( Ballerina )
18.- Alex and Steve
19.- Lucky Charms
20.- Light of the moon
21.- Jeremy and Steve
22.- Angel food
23.- Drum Solo
24.- The Murder
25.- Juice
26.- Whispering a Prayer
27.-Taurus Bulba
28.-Liberty
29.-The attitude Song
30.- For the Love of God