LIVE AT THE ASTORIA

Steve Vai deserves a place in this site, no doubt here. Compared to Satriani, Mitchell or Malmsteem, Vai's songs are much, much more complex most of the time. He uses a lot of keyboard and time changes; definitely progressive music material.

On stage in London, we assist at a bizarre side of Vai: the complete spiritual gimmick. Vai is in constant inner peace with himself and shares it...er...all the time? The guy's obvioiusly connected with the beyond, or maybe disconnected? He appears at first with some kind of a sadomasochist mask and a (very innapropriate) shredded black robe, straight out of WWF Macho Man Randy Savage wardrobe. Nobody could blame the guy for trying to entertain...even if it consist at laughing at his appearance.

The support cast is all-star material, as always Vai knows how to surround himself. Billy Sheenan as always is stealing the show, with his Frankenstein shoes, his ugly bass but foremost the supreme talent God gave him at birth. He play bass like I never saw (even Geddy Lee or Ed Platt of Enchant don't come close, sorry) anybody tormenting the instrument before. His fingers are litteraly 'flamenco' style, and it sounds something like a huge blender at slow speed.

To me this DVD is not my priority right now. Altought the image is crisp and the bonus cd features a behind the scene footage, the general feel is too speedy for me. Many times, the image is spinning into (lame) fade outs at tremendous speed, the camera angles are changing lightning fast and the close ups are too fast. All this mixed with alchool = one nasty barf-o-rama. I had a hard time to focus my eyes many times, the same thing happened with the movie 'Bourne Supremacy'.

Like I said, the music is furious and shreiking, but honestly, I prefer seeing Vai being tamed by Satriani in the G3. He seems more relaxed, to say the least.

For a fan, this is a chance to see Vai dressed in drag and licking his guitar...whatever man.