G3 2004 Birmingham Review
I attended the G3 show at the NIA in Birmingham and I can quite possibly say it is one of the most awesome things I have ever witnessed in my Life. What can I say, this concert was awesome, we travelled for three hours but it was well worth every mile.
I've had a night to recover but I'm still in awe...this was without a doubt the greatest concert I have ever been to in my life. I thought this years G3 was brilliant, but really it was like a G2.
Where do I start?  My ears, those guitars screamed it was wild! It was loud! It was live! It was rocking my world anyway! 7:30pm, we arrived at the NIA with some munchies and our new g3 shirts we bought. After we were seated we listen to some music from the P.A. untill the lights went down to start the show; a pleasurable background lighting display projected.
Robert Fripp started with some soundscape which was not too bad but it seemed to go on for ages, I thought it was an intro at first, boy was I wrong! He sat on his little chair in the corner hidden away, 30 minutes of this got repetitive really fast. I did try really hard to enjoy this, and I did for the first 5 minutes, but Fripp was just sitting on a stall to the back of the left hand side of the stage - and we could only see his head. I eventually used this time as an interval and went for a leak lol, I know a lot of people have said it, but I thought it was a sound-tech guy at first lol.
Steve Vai after Robert Fripp went off, Steve came out and got a great reception, he wasted no time in coming on stage. He came on skipping, bowing and waving and was handed the triple neck by Thomas Nordegg. The triple necked JEM came out to play, seeing that first time live was amazing, Vai had a fan blowing his hair back lol I wondered if that fan was doing his cold any good? This was amazing - I've heard the Triple neck piece on the DVD but you have to experience it live to fully get it. It was one of the highlights of the set, and as it gets to it's climax, all the band members started coming out and people went mad. His singing was top notch too. Steve Vai "such a nice little boy".... lol Was giving his all.
Steve absolutely rocked, he played some of my favourites E.G., Your here, Juice, Get the hell out of here, For the love of God, Whispering a prayer, attitude and Giant balls of gold. Although we didn't hear much new material it was a brilliant setlist, and was great to hear live- it sounded the tits!
Phenomenal playing from everyone in the Vai band, nothing short of incredible, terrific showmanship and connection with the audience.
The Drummer (Jeremy Colsen) - Ausome he played so well...at one point he went along with Steve's playing with one hand!
Billy Sheenan - I love this guy so full of energy, he had a good groove going and I told him so later that night! Oh yeah he had those tight shiny rubber pants lol.
Dave Weiner played good and he had an electric sitar set up on the right side of the stage for some cool backing when "For the love of God" was played.
Tony Mcalpine- was on top form although when he did the duel thing with Vai his guitar should of been louder, his keyboard sounded parts good and added a great effect to Vai's lead passages. I liked the keyboard intro in "For the love of god".
In one song Steve went and stood by Jeremy and they were mirroring each other's rhythms really quickly? That was quality, especially when Colson put one of his stick in his mouth and played something ridiculous.
I heard some fans wanted him to play different songs, those who have been to Vai gigs before and so wanted to see something different, but it was my first one so all the songs I wanted to hear live were on there.
"Giant balls of gold" was amazing - really heavy and really loud! He did the aerobic-type thing with the guitar at the end and I couldn't stop laughing. Then he started to tongue the guitar which people were going mad at - it was this point also that I realised just how amazing Billy Sheehan is on the bass. Attitude came on later and it was groovy, the bass was great, I remember me and Andrew looked at each other and said "attitude!"
Next up was "Answers"  which turned into "The Reaper" When Steve went into Juice which was incredible...Tony and Dave didn't play on this one but it sounded like 3 guitars...everybody knows how technical Juice is and it's amazing how Steve can play it so perfectly live and make it sound so good.
After this, Steve went into "Whispering a Prayer" which sounds amazing live...just how the hell does he get the guitar to sound like that? It was definitely one of the best songs of the night and everybody loved it. After that, he played "Bangkok/Bullwhip" into "Get the hell out of here".
The best part was when they were all together on stage playing each others guitars...it just sounded and looked so good...this song shows how amazing Tony Macalpine is too.
Finally Steve played For the Love of God with the alternative opening. Tony played the first few bars on the piano and people were going nuts...and it built up into the form we all know and love.
Steve didn't disappoint me at all...he is probably the greatest showman on the guitar today and just blew me away.
I haven?t got anything negative to say accept that one time Vai's band seemed to be playing too loud and managed to drown each other out but that was a minor sound thing but it was still ausome.
Joe Satriani After a 15-minute interval, Robert Fripp came out again and sat on his stall. He played his synth-stuff for about a minute but this time it was building up to Joe! Joe came out like he usually does...building up to the first major chord in the dark and he ripped into Hands in the Air - which was one of my favourite songs of the night.
It was so heavy and clear I went mad with excitement! I just had to start head bangin, we had been listening to this song a lot on the way to the venue and didn't expect to see it live. Joe Satriani - what can I say? He was easily the highlight of the show for me. His sound was perfect; there was no drowning out or anything. Plus, it was a real honour for me to see him in the flesh; after all, he is one of my utmost idols. Overall, I'd give the performance 10/10. Wow, what a set!
Joe spoke for a minute or so before going into Cool #9 - one of my favourites. Again, Joe played this to perfection as he usually does. The introduction, which is different every time he plays it, was just plain brilliant - great use of the whammy bar and there was definitely a groove going on throughout the whole song.
Joe little fingers moved so fast and his songs just got me groove on. Satch boogie is amazing live. All the songs I said to Andrew that I would like to see played except Surfing were played! It was like a dream come true. A top performance put on by Joe, "War" was tremendous, & "Searching" was fantastic.
Next up was Gnaahh from the new album. He nailed the solo through and he just performed like a machine. After this he played 'I like the Rain' a lot of us started singing along to this song, then the solo came in - Brilliant.
Jeff's drum solo at the end was wicked as well, I just wish he would let himself go a bit during some other songs because we all know how amazing he is. Joe then said he was going to 'heat this place up' with 'Up in Flames' which went down really well. There was a flame-type thing playing in the background and funnily enough, it did feel hotter...even though it was really hot to begin with. Later Joe Got out his shiny pure white guitar and played
"Always with me, Always with you" Again, I was amazed at how Joe can play something and not hit a single wrong note at all...I was just in awe and people started to cheer during the tapping bit near the end. The outro to this was awesome as well - I was worried that it would take away slightly from the song but it just sounds so clean and precise that it sounds like its part of the song.
Joe's guitars were really well polished cause massive rays of light were reflecting off, shining like a lighthouse when it was tilted, it shone directly on us. Amazing what silver hardware can do to a stage performance.
The next song was my favourite off of 'Is there love in Space?' and one of my favourites tonight - Searching. The whammy bar just sounds perfect and the really weird bit at around 2:10(I think) sounds perfect too
I thought this would have been something impossible to recreate live, but you can see Joe fiddling around with the effects and it just sounds unreal.
Finally, Joe played Is there love in Space, War and Flying in a blue Dream - all running into each other. It was great to hear War played live because its a great song, and Is there Love in Space sounds good live too but Flying in a blue dream just blew them both away. Again, he played it absolutely note perfect and I was just in awe throughout most of the song - and most of the show too.
All the new stuff kicked arse and the old stuff, well... Always with me, Always with you was a treat because of the extended jam at the end, nothing short of incredible, as was the trios performance of Searching. Joe finished off the set with Robert adding to the line-up, he did a 3 part song of Is There Love in Space? War and Flying in a Blue Dream, The latter was the highlight of the show.
Joe had much more life on stage too, jumping around and getting the audience involved. Some of the shredding in Satch's set, and that he did in the jam, were flat out unbelievable. Joe doesn't cut loose as much as he might, but he really went for it this time and it was quite staggering. I was worried after seeing Steve that Joe couldn't possibly match the show that he put on, but he did...while I don't really want to say one was better than the other, both were just completely awesome. Steve had the stage presence, but Joe had a groove on which everybody was feeling - I was just really surprised at how active Joe was on stage.
A lot of people think that Joe isn't very active on stage but he was just as crazy as Steve tonight - jumping around, running around while still playing perfectly. This really surprised me as he is a 52-year-old man and after watching the live in San Francisco dvd I thought it would have been just guitar playing.
G3 Jam Bursting out with Ice 9 the G3 jam came on next, and I agree with most people in that it's really a G2 jam as Robert Fripp just sits at the back on a stall playing. Ice 9 was killer...Steve ripped through this song like it was his own, and during Roberts solo, I think his lead fell out so Joe had to carry it on for him. Joe played the solo from the King Crimson CD - it just looked really weird having Joe play one of his songs with Steve on rhythm guitar - hows that for a dream band? Fripp started to shred but then his sound went and he disappeared off stage to fix it so his solo was cut short. It was more like a G2 jam really, Fripp sat on the side of the stage and was a bit of a side-character.
I was really pleased at this Show because I got more songs off Vai and Joe than I expected, they played for about an hour each with about 8-10 songs each...
Aftershow Joe entertained me the most but I have too say Steve Vai made my night, cause he came after the show and greeted us even though he had a cold. What happened is after the show Me and Andrew went round the back of the venue to where the g3 trucks were loading up and found 20 other people there trying to see if we could catch anyone. After waiting an hour Jeremy Came out gave out two drumsticks and greeted everybody, he signed my T-shirt as best he could then we asked him if Vai would come out and he said he would ask. Bout half an hour later this tall guy pops out is it Vai we all ask?. It is!!! Vai comes out amazed that we waited in the rain too see him and said he would start signing here and work his way up. Then Billy came out and started greeting everyone, he's so funny I remember asking him for a photo and he said "sorry I don't do photos" and then he said "just kidding!!" I said he had a nice groove going on and he said, "well u just gotta have the groove man" he said I should check out his website cause he is touring Malaysia and I could come see him.
After Vai finished signing guitars, tickets and stuff he chatted to us. I said he was cool and I love his playing, I also asked him questions about tone and sound and he gave me some advice. While I was still talking this northern guy asked Vai to sign his extra's empty box, after having 10 autographs off him, Vai looked at me and said this guys gonna have to carry that box around and we laughed. That northern fan was funny he got his guitar signed and then asked Vai about evolution pickups, Vai said  "can you say that again I don't understand your English" the guy then repeated the questions slowly cause of his accent. I remember him shouting "Vai! Ur a genius a flippin genius!!"
I said to Andrew "told you, you should have brought your guitar". When I had a photo with Vai I had to go under the bar to get passed and I remember seeing Vai's shoes, very expensive and big! I shook his hand before he left, (well his leather gloves but he did have a cold lol). The photo's of us aren't that good but consider the fact we waited in the rain for two hours, and we were shocked by Vai, tired, and drenched. We couldn't stop smiling. Andrew kept going on bout how late it was and I just kept turning to him and saying "Andrew it was worth WE MET VAI!!"
Steve and his band members are not big-headed at all, and they are really nice guys.
Steve is a cool guy and an absurdly gifted composer and musician. It was a joy to have the opportunity to watch him play. I hope the security's as bad at the next gig so then maybe I can meet the rest of the band lol!
All in all if you want to see some of the best guitar playing in the world I urge anyone to just go see Vai and Satch, you'll regret it if you don't.
Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1