Steve Vai's Wild Things

[sixx_ gunner]

Watching this again on Palladia tonight. I am not real sure I care for most of it! Anyone else catch this?
There is some good stuff and alot of wank fest but its just not that good.

The drummer is pretty damn good, but I don't see anyone else I liked.
That is my 2 cents.

What did you think?

[Endrik]

haven't seen it but isn't Ann Marie Calhoun playing there? she's fucking ridiculously good.

[Axewielder]

I think he's gone the Hammett route of using the wah waaaaaay too much. Can I even say that?!? Yeah he is pretty good at it, it just makes everything sound the same.

[sixx_ gunner]

ALOT of it sounded the same....agreed. And Yes, Ann is playing but you really can't appreciate her playing.
If you see this, EVO looks like it has a crack near the neck pocket....probably from all the wanking off..

[Axewielder]

ALOT of it sounded the same....agreed. And Yes, Ann is playing but you really can't appreciate her playing.
If you see this, EVO looks like it has a crack near the neck pocket....probably from all the wanking off..

Don't get me wrong...I'm not lookin' to "cut heads" with that sumbich anytime soon!

[DrDestruction]

Yeah. Too much wanking and "artistic" playing going on in that DVD. The music was a little overly complicated with the weird time signatures and stuff to the point of being boring, as well Too much processing, too- I mean... do you REALLY need to use all those effects during the course of one song?

I wish Vai would go for more of a stripped-down approach on his next venture- maybe a three-piece or four-piece arrangement with a minimum of effects and less-complicated songs. You know... the whole do-more-with-less thing.

[quiksilver]

"I wish Vai would go for more of a stripped-down approach on his next venture- maybe a three-piece or four-piece arrangement with a minimum of effects and less-complicated songs. You know... the whole do-more-with-less thing."

+1!!!!! I don't mind complicated songs, but I have been wanting Vai to do a trio for a LONG time.

[Robert Burns]

I think EVO has had about 30 necks replaced? Live in Astoria London is
my fave! What a showman..

[pro-fusion]

Yeah. Too much wanking and "artistic" playing going on in that DVD. The music was a little overly complicated with the weird time signatures and stuff to the point of being boring, as well Too much processing, too- I mean... do you REALLY need to use all those effects during the course of one song?

Wow, I couldn't possibly disagree with you more. If anything, I'd like to see Vai get even further away from basic rock music. In some ways, he's the true successor to Frank Zappa, and I'd like to see him embrace that more. Of course, I'm a fusion and avant-garde jazz guy now, so Vai's work doesn't seem all that crazy to me. If you think this is too "artistic," you'd absolutely hate my music.

I saw the Wild Things tour live and thought it was fantastic. The DVD/CD has some sound issues with the second violinist (which I'm guessing is why it was delayed so long), but otherwise I prefer it to Vai's Live at the Astoria DVD. This band was more interesting, even if it didn't have the attraction of having Tony MacAlpine in it.

BTW, Vai has said in interviews that EVO is perilously close to being firewood. There is a severe crack in the neck pocket, and it's only a matter of time before it splits wide open. Gee, I thought all those Ibenhad JEMs on the wall at GC were just as good as Vai's personal guitars. Guess not, if he clings to EVO so religiously...

[Endrik]

once you play with zappa... straight down rock'n'roll is very boring and uninteresting

[Alvin_Wilson]

Yep, saw it and couldn't watch all of it. I did notice the crack on EVO. Looked like there was a crack in the same spit on FLO, too.

[DrDestruction]

Wow, I couldn't possibly disagree with you more. If anything, I'd like to see Vai get even further away from basic rock music. In some ways, he's the true successor to Frank Zappa, and I'd like to see him embrace that more. Of course, I'm a fusion and avant-garde jazz guy now, so Vai's work doesn't seem all that crazy to me. If you think this is too "artistic," you'd absolutely hate my music.

I saw the Wild Things tour live and thought it was fantastic. The DVD/CD has some sound issues with the second violinist (which I'm guessing is why it was delayed so long), but otherwise I prefer it to Vai's Live at the Astoria DVD. This band was more interesting, even if it didn't have the attraction of having Tony MacAlpine in it.

BTW, Vai has said in interviews that EVO is perilously close to being firewood. There is a severe crack in the neck pocket, and it's only a matter of time before it splits wide open. Gee, I thought all those Ibenhad JEMs on the wall at GC were just as good as Vai's personal guitars. Guess not, if he clings to EVO so religiously...

Well... I could (and still do) listen to the Zappa stuff, from "Apostrophe/Overnight Sensation" all the way to "Them Or Us", and that stuff was incredibly intricate with odd meters and non-standard keys and tunings.

But at least Zappa had had the good sense to interject some taste and humor into his works to make them less artistically-pretentious, which is the sense I got from the Vai "Wild Things" DVD. It almost felt like Vai was being intricate for the sake of being intricate and NOT because it fits the song, which pretty much takes the fun out of listening to his music. I mean... we all know he's incredibly proficient on the guitar, so why should he try to continue to prove that point in his music, right?

And I'd STILL like to see Vai ditch all the foot-pedal gadgetry and the extraneous players and do a stripped-down power-trio or power-quad thing, similar to what Hendrix did with the Jimi Hendrix Experience and what Clapton did with Cream. And the stuff that Hendrix and Clapton did was VERY advanced stuff, too.

[pro-fusion]

Those are some good points. And it would be interesting to hear Vai in a power trio context, though he'd undoubtedly go even heavier on the effects, just to fill up more space.

Personally, I'd be interested to hear him in a more collaborative setting, regardless of how many players are involved. He's not as good an improviser as Satriani, but I'd still love to hear him work in a fusion group with someone like Chick Corea, who would really push him in new directions. Vai guests on the new Mike Stern album and does some interesting things, but that's not like a full-on project. The problem is that Vai might have inherited too many control-freak tendencies from Zappa to really be comfortable in a collaborative effort.

What I do NOT want to have him do is join a rock band, ala Chickenfoot.

[DrDestruction]

Those are some good points. And it would be interesting to hear Vai in a power trio context, though he'd undoubtedly go even heavier on the effects, just to fill up more space.

Personally, I'd be interested to hear him in a more collaborative setting, regardless of how many players are involved. He's not as good an improviser as Satriani, but I'd still love to hear him work in a fusion group with someone like Chick Corea, who would really push him in new directions. Vai guests on the new Mike Stern album and does some interesting things, but that's not like a full-on project. The problem is that Vai might have inherited too many control-freak tendencies from Zappa to really be comfortable in a collaborative effort.

What I do NOT want to have him do is join a rock band, ala Chickenfoot.

Yeah. The whole supergroup thing (ala Chickenfoot) probably wouldn't suit Vai's style very well. Then again, he kind of already HAS been in supergroups of sorts back in the day- the David Lee Roth Band and Whitesnake. LOL

The problem with Vai getting into a fusion thing is that he'll undoubtedly do his whizzy-whizzy foo-foo stuff there, too. Chances are that all the little noise-maker things he does would get a wee bit too old in a hardcore jazz-fusion context, as it's all about chops and technique (as is obviously the case with Chick Corea, Al DiMeola, or Mike Stern) and not about how many different effects you can jam into a preset on your pedal board or how hard you can pull back on your Floyd.

And Vai would really be showing some laziness and mediocrity if he went even HEAVIER with the processing and the effects in a power-trio format, as that's the one format that is supposed to show off your skills as a guitarist. After all... you don't have a second guitarist to help cover you while you fumble about- it's all you up there with two other people, and if you don't have the chops to step up and take charge (as Hendrix, Clapton, Page, Beck, and Gibbons have done in their bands), then you're gonna bore a lot of people rather quickly.

[DrDestruction]

Yep, saw it and couldn't watch all of it. I did notice the crack on EVO. Looked like there was a crack in the same spit on FLO, too.

FLO is all jacked-up because of all the years of Vai throwing the guitar around (and dropping it) over the years. The neck's been replaced more times than can be counted, and the body's got some major cracks running down from the neck pocket. It's amazing how it can still remain playable at this point.

It just goes to show- when you're playing guitar, DON'T throw it around! LOL