{"id":21171,"date":"2012-07-25T05:39:22","date_gmt":"2012-07-25T10:39:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=21171"},"modified":"2013-02-05T17:31:36","modified_gmt":"2013-02-05T22:31:36","slug":"live-g3-joe-satriani-steve-vai-steve-morse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2012\/live-g3-joe-satriani-steve-vai-steve-morse\/","title":{"rendered":"LIVE! | G3: Joe Satriani, Steve Vai & Steve Morse"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Alissa Ordabai<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

July 20, 2012 at the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam, the Netherlands<\/h3>\n

\"\"Opening the European leg of this year\u2019s G3 in Amsterdam, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, and Steve Morse have managed to sell out the 5500 capacity Heineken Music Hall, Holland\u2019s best purpose-built popular music venue. Renowned for its exceptional acoustics, it did actually deliver an impressive sound, and Steve Morse mentioned during his set how pleased all three guitarists were with the perfect sound-check. <\/p>\n

Morse\u2019s participation in G3 this year is not only adding a different flavour to this lofty guitar-fest-on-wheels, but highlights the diversity of styles on today\u2019s rock guitar scene. His continuing search for ways to mix rock, funk, and jazz made Satriani\u2019s transparent melodies stand out even starker tonight, and provided an interesting contrast to Vai\u2019s emotional depth and sonic flamboyance. And although the interaction between the three guitar personalities never took flight during the end-of-the-show jam, individually each player has delivered something uniquely personal this evening.<\/p>\n

While Vai and Satriani chose to play their most accessible, best-known material, Morse sounded at his best when treading the experimental line between jazz and rock, as well as when working a funky groove in tandem with bassist Dave Larue. Interacting with the guitar on an equal footing, Larue – apart from providing dynamic, imaginative support \u2013 was bringing in an intelligent commentary to Morse\u2019s extrapolations, adding extra latitude to the set. Morse\u2019s technique range was beautifully showcased too – from delicately articulated harmonics to torrential chicken-picking, complementing the range of genres he tackled tonight \u2013 rock, jazz, and blues- and country-inspired material showing what an erudite, multi-faceted player he has always been.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

More cerebral than emotion-driven, Morse\u2019s set couldn\u2019t have been more different from Vai\u2019s. When Vai took the stage, it felt like an alien had just landed in front of the crowd. Supercharged and super-loud, Vai began throwing down barnburner chops from the word go with \u201cThe Audience is Listening.\u201d Grabbing attention and not letting go until the end of the set, he was like a house on fire, and all about that \u201cfierce confidence\u201d as he once described his on-stage feeling to this writer. \u201cI feel like I own the world,\u201d he explained. \u201cI am fiercely confident in what I do and I know that when I\u2019m doing it I am demanding that people are being sucked in.\u201d<\/p>\n

From stompers such as \u201cThe Audience is Listening\u201d to meditative torch songs such as \u201cFor the Love of God\u201d Vai\u2019s set was an uninterrupted, intuitive flow of feeling propelled by his phenomenal technique. A perfect retort to anyone who says that ostentatious chops in rock music are nothing but vacuous indulgencies, Vai\u2019s performance tonight was all about technique liberating a player to express exactly who he is, and being an indelible part of composition – from impeccable bends and vibrato on \u201cThe Animal\u201d, to two-hand tapping on \u201cBuilding the Church,\u201d to the tremolo bar on \u201cWhispering a Prayer\u201d used for getting from one hypnotic note to the next.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s staggering how Vai finds emotional strength to improvise so imaginatively at every show he plays, but tonight he tapped into something exceptional, and improvised so generously, you knew this was special. Part of the reason could have been the location. During his banter with the crowd he confessed that Amsterdam was his favorite city, adding that Amsterdamers would be the first to hear his upcoming studio album The Story of Light<\/em> on August 12 on their local radio.<\/p>\n

When Satriani came on stage, he too called Amsterdam \u201cthe best place\u201d, but kick-started his set so differently from anything Vai\u2019s just played, the vibe in the room changed in seconds. The opener \u201cIce 9\u201d had the crowd singing along right off the bat, wide awake from Vai\u2019s hypnosis and ready to be taken on a different kind of trip.<\/p>\n

\"\"Satch didn\u2019t improvise as much as Vai did this evening, and the 9-song set of his best-known material rolled along the well-beaten, familiar track. Sounding simpler and more reserved than he does on the recently released \u2013 and quite exceptional \u2013 live record Satchurated Live in Montreal<\/em>, he relied on those well-known riffs and melodies to work their magic without venturing too far off from the studio versions.<\/p>\n

The 3-song jam at the end of the show went over the Kinks\u2019 \u201cYou Really Got Me,\u201d Cream\u2019s \u201cWhite Room,\u201d and Neil Young\u2019s \u201cRockin\u2019 in a Free World.\u201d Far from being a real flight of inspiration, it became a tasteful \u2013 albeit slightly prosaic \u2013 closer to the show. But it proved is that being a world-class pro is about still being able to provide A-grade entertainment no matter how much inspiration you feel at a particular moment. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alissa Ordabai – Senior Columnist — July 20, 2012 at the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam, the Netherlands Opening the European leg of this year\u2019s G3 in Amsterdam, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, and Steve […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6816],"tags":[674,439,164,334,757,340,5727],"class_list":{"0":"post-21171","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-arcconrvw2012","7":"tag-concert","8":"tag-joe-satriani","9":"tag-live","10":"tag-review","11":"tag-steve-morse","12":"tag-steve-vai","13":"tag-the-story-of-light"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21171\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}