Talent does not age. I was thinking about something like that as the day of Steve Vai’s concert approached at Akvárium. As unfortunately usual nowadays, I started to take in last year’s Inviolate album months after its release, and while it’s obvious that the central song of the album, Teeth of the Hydra, mostly steals the show on it, no one can say that he’s trying to reproduce his previous albums, or he’s making only minor changes to the well-tried formula what’s enough to at least the hardcore fans cannot accuse him of repeating himself.
One of the basic tenets of art is that everything and anything should be exaggerated, and someone will definitely see something in it. Along these lines, this guitar mutant named Hydra – what has become a myth in its own right already in a really short time – can be labeled by some from a skeptical approach as a pretentious show element, but at the same time, as I wrote about this earlier, it takes a certain „divine madness” attitude in a good sense for someone to devise, plan and carry out such a project, practically – so far – for the sake of a single song. (In addition, this is not the first occasion of this kind, but since I don’t want to write a novel right now, I will not go into this storyline in depth.) At the same time, as it turned out at the concert, the idea works perfectly, at least I have never witnessed before an instrument itself is greeted with cheers, even though there have already been many legendary guitars in the history of popular music; a book was even written about David Gilmour’s Black Strat. And of course, the song performed on it is definitely not a piece of cake; as an old metal hat halfway between a child’s seat and a lawn aeration rake, I don’t even dare to think how many working hours he has spent on the composition, and on practicing it to such a level that someone dares to stand on stage with that. If playing the guitar were a circus, this is roughly the category where someone hugs the lion, then both shot out of the cannon through the flaming hoop, only to land with a triple jump, and at the end, the bender sticks his head in between the beast’s jaws as a joke, just so that the people sitting further back don’t get bored.
Of course, I ran ahead a bit, since this episode took place well toward the end of the evening. But in the meantime, we had many things to watch and listen to, even though the concert itself was not an explicit fan-feeding hit parade. Since this is the European leg of the last year’s album tour, it was no surprise that six songs from Inviolate were performed live, and the starting Avalancha set the basic mood of the evening perfectly. Then there were songs from the new album in the first half of the show, such as Little Pretty, Candlepower, and Greenish Blues, which all perfectly illustrated how diverse and individual a guitarist and songwriter Vai is. He mixes so many things even within one song, from rock to blues to the usual solutions in jazz, that it’s mind-boggling, and whatever he plays, you can tell it’s him by just one single note, even if you are standing with your back to the stage, eyes closed, while you trying to recall the linguistic distribution of Switzerland’s cantons.
In addition to the main man, as usual, we could welcome top league musicians on the stage this time again. It was also a great experience to watch drummer Jeremy Colson and bassist Philip Bynoe, who have been stable pillars of the tour team for long years. Second guitarist Dante Frisiello, who previously worked as a technician in Vai’s team, took over the position a few months ago when Dave Weiner left. Not without merit, as he proved it excellently this evening, since – like everyone else in the band – he also got a solo part, and his playing was more than memorable.
Apparently, it’s probably a basic requirement for the members of the touring band to be excellent guitarists, since at one point in the concert all the technicians also picked up instruments to play layered harmony parts under Vai, who played the main melody. Suddenly – if I saw correctly – five guitarists appeared on stage, which, in addition to adding to the musical part, was also an excellent gag, several people in the audience laughed appreciatively. Of course, this was not the only such action: the first half of Passion and Warfare’s biggest hit song, the originally instrumental For The Love of God was sung by monitor mixer, Danny G. like a trained opera singer. As we have seen, he is a great guitarist, and even an MMA fighter, if I understood well the song’s introductory speech – what a congregation of renaissance men! According to Vai, they have played this song so many times, that this time they thought it would be nice to add a twist to it, and maybe it all sounds weird when described, that a long-haired, bearded guy sings arias in sync with the guitar parts, live it worked perfectly once again as a really entertaining show element.
And this can be said about the full concert in general. I can understand if someone says that Vai’s presence on stage is „too much” for them, or that these fine musicians played ten times as many notes during this otherwise quite honest two-hour than what is heard on average at other concerts. Still, I think it was perfect in this form. There was plenty to listen to, we got a lot of fresh material, and of course at least the same number of stable concert favorites from the previous records – and you can’t really go wrong with songs like Tender Surrender, Bad Horsie, Liberty, or Fire Garden Suite I – Bull Whip in the encore. And, of course, we got a level of musicality and technical knowledge that could be almost humiliating if it were not performed with such enthusiasm and heart. There was plenty to see, as the previously mentioned little interludes smuggled self-indulgent hilarity into the many notes in a very entertaining way, and of course, for the instrument geeks, the guitars that changed from song to song could be observed, as I stare when another species of bird lands on the feeder in front of my kitchen window, but I will let go of this side thread now.
In any case, it was an excellent concert in all respects, after which only they could complain, who would have liked to listen to a primitive-by-principle crust punk band but accidentally went into another concert. Thanks to everyone involved. And now, dear readers, let’s say together the typical article closing sentence:
„Hopefully we won’t have to wait seven years for the next time!”
Pics: Éva Máté – Photographic.hu
