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STEVE VAI
Live At The Astoria London
Favored Nations |
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Joined by Billy Sheehan on Bass, Tony MacAlpine
on guitar and keyboards, Virgil Donati on drums, and Dave Weiner on
guitar Steve Vai recorded this Favored Nations DVD release live at
the Astoria in London in 2001. The two-disc set offers most 4 hours
of material including more than 20 tracks of up close Vai concert
footage.
On the heels of the recording of Alive in the Ultra World (Epic),
Vai focuses in part on tracks from the two disc release that offers
tracks inspired by the eclectic countries of Europe. The other focus
is Vai’s most mainstream collection of tracks from his 1990 release,
Passion & Warfare (Epic). While the song selection doesn’t exactly
offer much variety in the way of albums it does cover ballads,
blues, aggression, theatrics, and plenty of the unique fretwork this
extraordinary musician is known for.
The discs kick off with an old favorite, “Shy Boy” that reminds you
just how deep the history between Steve Vai and recent bassist Billy
Sheehan goes. Surprises on the release included “Chameleon” from
Sheehan’s solo album Compression (Favored Nations), an intense
rendition of Jimi Hendrix’s “Fire,” and an instrumental version of
“Deep Down Into the Pain” from Vai’s Sex & Religion (Relativity), as
well as an encore featuring “The Attitude Song” with special guest
blues guitarist Eric Sardinas.
The negative of the DVD's is some of the weird camera angle /
effects. There is nothing I hate more than the "Natural Born
Killers" / MTV style of sharp camera cuts. To me, that is a
sign of hiding a lack of talent, something that Vai has in spades,
thus very unnecessary. Changing image sizes and rapid zooms
does nothing more than leave a non-drug-induced person with a
massive headache.
Overall, musically, this is an enjoyable 2 DVD set (it is much
easier to listen to than watch). Visually, the video
production team should be sent back to "art school" where they can
pump out their struggling artists "vision" to the student cafeteria.
Track Listing:
1. Shyboy
2. Giant Balls Of Gold
3. Erotic Nightmares
4. Blood And Glory
5. Dave`s Party Piece
6. Blue Powder
7. The Crying Machine
8. The Animal
9. Bangkok
10. Tony`s Solo
11. Bad Horsie
12. Chameleon
13. Down Deep Into The Pain
14. Fire
15. Little Wing
16. Whispering A Prayer
17. Incantation (with drum solo)
18. Jibboom
19. For The Love Of God
20. Liberty
21. The Attitude Song |
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