I have to preface this somewhat by stating that I am one big admirer of Vai. I have all the music, transcriptions, and even the Jem, but I'm not blinded to the fact that he is indeed fallible, and I'm just going to be as honest as I can with this.
First the good, which is that I enjoyed it far more than I was expecting too. I had sort of set my hopes on this far lower after seeing the admittedly impressive trailer. Cynical? Maybe, but the last 10 years have been rather disappointing for me on the Steve Vai musical output.
So yes, not withstanding the somewhat cheap physical media and the packaging it ships in, this is an awesome product. It's been filmed very well (certainly a million times better than the 2001 Astoria filming) and the editing, whilst typically Vai-esque and flashy, manages to find a decent balance between focusing on the event itself (so you feel like a part of the concert) and focusing on the shredding star of the show. After all the majority of the people buying this are only looking for one thing. And in the testosterone fuelled world of stunt rock guitar pyrotechnics it is bizarrely not Ann Marie Calhoun's rather nice legs!
More good stuff...the song choice; it's pretty cool. Yes there's a lot of repetition but everyone is guilty of that from DVD to DVD (Mr Satriani!) however its also necessary, and what Vai does here is give a very long concert with enough new stuff and re-imaginings to make it a really great gig. All About Eve is a fantastic example of this.
Now the negatives. Steve Isn't an improviser. There...I said it.
Now this may hurt, (who I'm not sure, probably myself) but it's true. The reality is that Vai excels at creating, and re-creating incredibly impossible quirky guitar parts, and yes he composes fantastic guitar melodies. So when I watch Vai I want to see him playing the music as it was on record, not a half hearted attempt, and sort of ad-libbed.
Now extended sections and purposefully ad libbed sections are a different story, I can deal with those as they stand outside of the composition and can add wonderfully to a show. but this is not what is happening here.
Juice, The Audience is Listening, The Crying Machine, Taurus Bulba, Liberty. These are all examples of where he's sort of playing the solo's, or kinda getting the idea of the tune, but perfection it is not. And it is not as if the differences seem like conscious changes (baring the embarrassing Juice tap-out perhaps?!) that add to the music. It really does sound like someone just not nailing the parts.
Now please don't think I'm anti-improv! Not in the slightest. My uni degree was in Jazz, and for that reason improvising is close to my heart, and this is why I adore the likes of John Scofield, Pat Metheny, Wayne Krantz, just a few examples of phenomenal improvisers, who acknowledge that's what they do. It is not that I'm biased against improvising, it just that's really not what I want to see in a Steve Vai gig.
I know that there are many many factors that go into a live Vai show and Steve's performance is sometimes the smaller part of this (to his humble credit) however I feel that all of the flashy lights and stage antics can be detrimental to what I would consider his core skill, and what he has made his name on.
And I think this is why my Vai love has waned somewhat in recent years. Take some time to ponder on this: There has been only 1 studio record in a decade and all the live dvds are not performed as convincingly as I've personally witnessed him achieve in the past.
Other things to take into note; the Violin thing. Hmm not sure. Sometimes it works, most of the time it really doesn't. And Alex DePue's electric distorted violin sounds down right horrible at times. Ann Marie Calhoun's tone is much more pleasant, however the timbres very often clash with Vai. I do have to give credit to the arrangements and hard work of the two of them though. Some considerable time has been put into adapting the guitar parts for violin, and clearly they've had to work to get them. However I can't help but feel underwhelmed at best, and at worst turn down the volume because the upper frequencies are just screeching at times.
I'm still not a fan of Jeremy Colson's drumming, and really don't think he fits the Vai band very well. However watching the bonus features he comes across as a really nice guy and very humbled to be part of it, which is all nicey nicey etc etc but I just don't think he has the chops or the groove for this sort of thing. But as I mentioned before this isn't about a band performing, despite Steve's best intentions to present it that way, which he admirably does. This is about enjoying, or well maybe not enjoying as the case maybe, Vai s freakish fingers flying around the guitar neck.
I know I sound a little harsh with all this, but I think that ultimately I'm a little bitter that in 10 years Real Illusions has been the only studio record, and I was seriously underwhelmed by it. Don't get me wrong, I want to love Vai again. It's just he's making it hard for me to do so.
Next up, Breaking Benjamin's Dear Agony album.. ha ha more negative things to say...I really need to find something I like and review it, soon!
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