Zappa/Vai '82

[dg]

I was checking for Mike Keneally stuff and ran across this awesome vid of Zappa & Vai doing an all instrumental version of Stevie's Spanking from 7/82. Cool on a lot of levels. Both are playing floyded strats! Check out Vai's shorts... :ROTF: I forgot how short people used to wear them back then!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5ORGWfJiTI&search=Zappa

[mab8485]

Some of the wankiest playing i've heard. Aint it cool!

Thanks alot for the video.

[slash]

Cool find!

[Endrik]

omg, this is fucking awsome

this pretty much shows who was the real Steve's teacher and where he got the idea to use the lydian mode all the time

[MOSHWITZ]

thats cool....i love ZAPPA,,,what a killer look back in time. check out the vid for city of tiny lights on that page too...you'll love it , its a way of life
MOSH ON
DAVE

[dannyr]

Great video! Thanks for sharing. Vai's shorts and shirt kill me. LOL

[markD]

i like frank's playing better!!! still cool though!

[PallarAndersVisa]

awesome. zappa is the best!

[5074charvel]

I saw that tour - 22 June 1982 in Hamburg germany - still got the ticket.

Frank was the best!

[lerxstcat]

Frank Zappa was a true genius, both in his wrtiting and his choice of musicians. And yeah, people remember Vai in that band but forget Frank could tear up a guitar himself! His son Dweezil isw no slouch but sadly doesn't seem to have the spark his dad had. Taken from us far too young; RIP Frank, and thanks for the insanity!

[jgcable]

omg, this is fucking awsome

this pretty much shows who was the real Steve's teacher and where he got the idea to use the lydian mode all the time

You ain't kidding. Those Carvin X100B's didn't sound too bad either (if thats what they were using). Zappa was a musical genius and a hell of a guitar player but watching him blow away Vai in feel, tone and technique is just mind blowing.

[Badseed]

"broken hearts are for ASSholes" is my earliest Via/zappa memory. From an MTV concert.

[zouloustation35]

I have this video, but I know more or, I will seek it. Of remembering it's in documentary.

Yes zappa is the best, it's a true genius .... but Steve vai and Mike Keneally are too

Arno.

[zouloustation35]

:ROTF: It's too funny when Steve spits on the cigarette end of Frank :ROTF:

Arno

[pro-fusion]

Vai was, what, 20 years old when this was recorded? He has grown amazingly as a player since then. Zappa pretty much owned him in this performance. Of course, I'm biased because Frank is one of my alltime musical heroes and favorite guitarists.

To me, Zappa never played as well or sounded as good on Strats as he did on Gibsons, and I've always been a much bigger fan of his late '70s playing, versus his stuff from the '82 and '84 tours. To hear a much more intense performance by Frank on his old Gibby SG, check out this live vid of "Suicide Chump" from 1978:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGS9GaMgZi8

By the way, Frank used a much more complex guitar rig live than just a Carvin X100B. Typically, he routed his signal through both very distorted and very clean setups simultaneously to give his playing both that scary snarl and a lot of definition at the same time. In fact, he was pretty much the first guy to run a 'rig' using high fidelity gear, back in the early '70s.