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Steve Vai

Started by silentcobra6 · · 👁 6 views · 83 replies

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Participants silentcobra6Melissa Anderson23Jack Williams4restlesswolf3Nathan Barnes5Jeffrey Green16William Castillo19Eric Nelson4Brandon Castillo4redcrane28Ronald Taylor2Nicole Ramos2electricviper72Alexander Parker69Mark Wells91neonorca11Joshua Watson2Gary SanchezBryan BarrettAlex Martinez4casualtinker14Robin Rodriguez5fadeddrifter3Andrew Miller102 …
silentcobra6 silentcobra6 NewcomerOP
9 messages
joined Nov 2003
#1 ·
I can't believe this guy isn't on the list for this subforum yet! Any way:

Some people claim Steve Vai is the best on the planet, and he’s definitely among the top tier of electric guitar masters globally (Joe Satriani, Yngwie Malmsteen, John Petrucci, etc.). I absolutely love his stuff like Answers, Live, The Ultra Zone, and so on—his technique is just unreal. Honestly, which guitarist hasn't heard of "Eugene's trick bag"? (That's the solo from the movie Crossroads. And no, it's not the same movie as Britney Spears. This one came out around 1985, and Vai plays the villain, sort of like a guy playing against some other dude—who's played by The Karate Kid—where if he wins, he frees the soul of some bluesman who died ages ago. That solo is insane. Okay, fine, I'll stop before you guys start commenting on my favorite guitarist. BTW, he actually learned from Joe Satriani (they're best friends now).

Hehe, check out this quote from his diary:
"my band and i watched Joe's show from backstage on a TV. It was so perfect. His concentration is solid and his playing seems flawless. His command on the instrument is stunning. He squeezes that neck to get every sound and note possible. Reeves Gabrels put it perfectly once when after a 2 and a half hour Satriani performance, he said it reminded him of a prize fighter in the 15th round and he's made every punch his body could muster and still keeps slugging it out (I'm paraphrasing). We were all just looking at each other while Joe was playing, and laughing at how amazing it was. After the show I asked him how it went and he had the nerve to say "Ah, I played kind of sloppy tonight." I told him to shut the fuck up before I get sick."

This one is also good: (he's doing an interview in a hotel room, the camera is rolling and it's being broadcast live on TV🙂
The first question was, "so, how does Mexico differ from the rest of the world?" Now, I get asked this question in almost every interview and as usual I had to try to make it seem like, "Oh, what an interesting question." I start to speak with this very philosophical look of interest on my face. I bring my huge hands up to display my deep inner thoughts in gesture form when all of a sudden there is this huge SPLLLAAATTTT!!! type explosion sound that emanated from the fire sprinkler that was situated over the camera and right above the extremely high heat giving light. What had happened was the light that they were using to light me was too close to the sprinkler head that was in the ceiling and it caused the sprinkler to go off by first exploding a powdery like fire extinguishing chemical throughout the whole room, and then violently spraying water as if the Hoover Dam had just burst and the flood gates had blown!
The second I heard The Explosion I knew what happened. All hell broke loose. The TV crew was stunned and started to dash about in a frantic display of confusion and terror. The way they were all of a sudden running around, it looked like someone had kicked a beehive. I started laughing hysterically while clumsily trying to make my way off the chair and out of the range of the water flow. Dave Weiner and I were tremendously amused at all this. The crew tried desperately to save the camera from the waterfall that was filling the room. It was impossible to get out the door without going through the spraying water and I figured that I had better make a dash for the side door that led to the adjoining room. So there I was, laughing hysterically and trying to make my way through the water to the door. The door was already opened a crack and as I grabbed it and pulled, it slammed into my own face. After the stun of the impact from the door, the whole Keystone Cop activities made me laugh even harder. I go through the door soaking wet busting into Joe's interview. (Joe was in the next room, doing an interview too)🙂 )
Melissa Anderson23 Melissa Anderson23 Newcomer
2 messages
joined Nov 2004
#2 ·
Please, keep those Steve Vai interviews coming! I was absolutely hooked on that one about the spray bottle.🙂)))

Off-topic: does anyone know if you actually need to build a full website to start a blog? I honestly don't know the first thing about web development, even though I've been dreaming about starting a blog for quite some time now.
Jack Williams4 Jack Williams4 Member
11 messages
joined Mar 2004
#3 ·
silentcobra6 said:I honestly can't believe this guy isn't on the list for this subforum yet! Anyway:

Some people claim Steve Vai is the absolute best on the planet, and honestly, I can't argue with that—he’s definitely sitting right at the top with the all-time greats like Joe Satriani, Yngwie Malmsteen, and John Petrucci. I am absolutely obsessed with his work; stuff like *Answers*, *Die to Live*, and *The Ultra Zone* just hits different. His technique is nothing short of miraculous. And really, is there any guitar player out there who hasn't heard of "Eugene's trick bag"? It's legendary.

Aha! That guy is incredible. I mean, "For the Love of God" is absolutely stunning, but my absolute favorite has to be "Tender Surrender"... man, what an amazing track. Just hits different!
Even though I’m usually more of a Satriania guy, I have to admit that Joe is just on another level for me. His songwriting feels a bit stronger, too. In fact, I’ve got "With Jupiter in My Mind" playing right now.
restlesswolf3 restlesswolf3 Member
17 messages
joined Jun 2004
#4 ·
Strong Bad is the ultimate guitar god!

www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail36.html
Nathan Barnes5 Nathan Barnes5 Member
35 messages
joined Apr 2004
#5 ·
I mean... It's possible... It could totally happen 😲
Jeffrey Green16 Jeffrey Green16 Member
45 messages
joined Jun 2004
#6 ·
Steve Vai is technically flawless on the guitar, but he doesn't lean into melody nearly enough.
That’s why I think Joe is better; he actually knows how to structure a song properly, whereas Vai just flies all over the fretboard.
William Castillo19 William Castillo19 Newcomer
8 messages
joined Feb 2004
#7 ·
Jessica Taylor74 said:Steve Vai is technically perfect on the guitar, but he doesn't focus enough on the melody.
That's why I think Joe is better—he actually knows how to structure a song properly, whereas Vai just flies all over the fretboard.


Have you even listened to For the Love of God? 🙂
Jeffrey Green16 Jeffrey Green16 Member
45 messages
joined Jun 2004
#8 ·
William Castillo19 said:Have you actually listened to For the Love of God?🙂

Anyone can take a shot at anyone else.😁
Nathan Barnes5 Nathan Barnes5 Member
35 messages
joined Apr 2004
#9 ·
It’s true that everyone in that whole "guitar hero" circle knows how to shred like crazy with a chainsaw, and yeah, Steve is definitely one of them. But he’s also one of those rare guys who actually knows how to stick a damn melody in there. It's like Neal Schon—someone we're all listening to every single day (like a constant program announcement on CBS), that legendary dude from the old-school 80s pop-metal band Journey. 🙂
Eric Nelson4 Eric Nelson4 Newcomer
2 messages
joined Jun 2004
#10 ·
I honestly feel like Petrucci has way more musicality and better gear in his head than Joe or even Yngwie and the whole crew... why?? Because Satriani was basically the one who taught him how to actually shred. And even Đo himself admitted that Petrucci's got the edge. It's just a different class altogether... 🙂
Jeffrey Green16 Jeffrey Green16 Member
45 messages
joined Jun 2004
#11 ·
Eric Nelson4 said:I honestly think Petrucci has way more musicality and better gear knowledge in his head than Joe or Yngwie and that whole crew... why? Because Satriani basically taught him how to make that guitar scream. Even Đo admitted Petrucci’s got the edge. He's just in a different league. 🙂

Petrucci rocks🙏
William Castillo19 William Castillo19 Newcomer
8 messages
joined Feb 2004
#12 ·
I'm pretty sure this whole thread is about Steve Vai....

🙄
silentcobra6 silentcobra6 NewcomerOP
9 messages
joined Nov 2003
#13 ·
We had Joe Satriani and Steve Vai playing. And that idiot Kirk Hammett too. BTW, did anyone catch Nelly Furtado's performance at the Grammy awards? Barba Vai was backing her up; apparently, he was supposed to play "I'm Like a Bird," but what he actually played had nothing to do with the original because he totally twisted it with improvisation. Someone mentioned it sounded a lot like Little Wing when he plays like that, and they were spot on. You definitely need to download the clip online, it's only about 10 MB... BTW, here are a few more clips:

Date: June 6, 1960
Where: Nassau County Hospital (Long Island, NY)
Even though there wasn't a stage and the audience was just a few family members, rumors say Steve showed up strumming his own umbilical cord.

Date: 1975
Band: Rayge Where: Long Island
Where: Long Island, NY (Eisenhower Park)
My friends were very proud of me as a guitar player and could Come to Blows with anybody Who didn't think their Boy Steve was The Best guitarist for ten towns. About 6 months after this gig at the park, Joe Despagni & i were waiting on One of those Endless 4-hour lines to get into The midnight showing of " Rocky horror Picture show. We struck up a conversation with the group of guys ahead of us in line. One of them was a musician, so naturally Joe started bragging that I played guitar. Not only did i Play The guitar , but i was The blah-blah Best guitar player blah-blah-blah etc. Things like that ara very important to The territorial mindsets of Long Island adolescents with barely Any pubic hair.
Anyway, this other guy starts telling us about some guitar player he’d seen who was way better than me—claiming that even though he’d never actually seen me play, there was no way I could hold a candle to this other guy. "He could blow my shit away!" You know how it is, just pure teenage testosterone. It started getting Despagni pretty worked up, and things got heated. Just as the verbal sparring was about to turn into an actual brawl, the guy blurted out, "Fuck you, man, this guy was playing the guitar behind his head and with his teeth and..." I cut him off: "Wait a second, was this at Eisenhower Park about six months ago? And was the guy playing a white Ventura double-neck?" The guy goes, "Yeah, why do you ask?" I told him, "That was ME, dude!" No fight broke out that night.
Brandon Castillo4 Brandon Castillo4 Regular
277 messages
joined Nov 2003
#14 ·
Steve Vai is a total phenomenon, plain and simple. I’ve got most of his albums in my collection, and if you ask me, he’s easily in the top 5 most inventive rock guitarists playing today, and definitely sits among the top 10 of all time...
William Castillo19 William Castillo19 Newcomer
8 messages
joined Feb 2004
#15 ·
I've got this buddy who basically absolutely shreds the guitar... I mean, he actually played through the whole Full Passion and Warfare along with Steve Vai (on the CDU!!!🙄), except for Ballerina... and when I asked him, "Hey, what about Ballerina?" he just looked at me and said:

".....Man.....you can just sit right here and cry."😁
redcrane28 redcrane28 Regular
282 messages
joined Aug 2003
#16 ·
I find Steve Vai sexy. That’s how he looked the last time I saw him—big mouth, big nose. I don't really follow all those "shredder" types, but from the ones I actually remember, Malmsteen was BEYOND boring, Joe Satriani was slightly less boring, and I actually liked Vai. What’s the name of that one album of his where he has "Little Green Man" and "Junkie"? I can't recall the rest of the tracklist—it's been at least 10 years since I owned that damn cassette. That one was alright for me.
Ronald Taylor2 Ronald Taylor2 Member
12 messages
joined Jul 2004
#17 ·
I honestly think—and I really do—that trying to debate who’s the superior guitarist among the names mentioned above is kind of a fool's errand. They’re all essentially "mountain climbers who have already reached the summit of the guitar version of Mt. Everest." In my eyes, they’ve pushed the instrument to its absolute physical limit; there's just a point where a human being physically cannot go any further, and that's just a cold, hard fact. This whole journey was kicked off a long time ago by Jimi Hendrix, if you ask me. To put it in perspective: Hendrix took a rough dirt path through the woods and turned it into a paved road, then guys like Joe Satriani and his crew took that road and expanded it into a massive, multi-lane superhighway. They’re all legends, plain and simple. Whether you gravitate toward Satriani, Steve Vai, or Yngwie Malmsteen, or if you’d rather stick with Hendrix or Jimmy Page, is purely a matter of personal taste. Everyone has their favorite, but as for who is objectively "better"... I honestly don't know.🤔
Nathan Barnes5 Nathan Barnes5 Member
35 messages
joined Apr 2004
#18 ·
There!
What is there even to say after that little fear. 😁
silentcobra6 silentcobra6 NewcomerOP
9 messages
joined Nov 2003
#19 ·
I definitely agree. I’ve always had a soft spot for Vaia because he seems the most "down to earth." He’s honest, and unlike some greedy hacks, he wasn't just chasing a paycheck—he actually had to grind and hustle to reach the top. BTW, this brings back memories:

Date: 1978
Band: Morning Thunder Where: Boston
Where: Boston, MA (Poo's Pub)
I felt completely inferior AT Berklee. I would just marvel at the way some of these guys were playing the guitar. I very rarely would play around them, but every morning all the monsters would gather around a huge table in the cafeteria and just blaze. It was uncanny how some of these guys played. One in particular was the most astonishing guitar player I ever saw or heard.
His name was Lorn Leber. A really kooky funny guy, Lorn was a genius. He could make up a synthetic scale and know it all over the entire neck of the guitar in an hour, complete with every chord inversion possible and impossible. His style was very fusion (sort of Mahavishnu John McLaughlin). To this day he is without a doubt the fastest guitar player I have ever seen (yes, even faster than Yngwie Malmsteen).
All The shredders would SIT AT The tabla and try to keep up with Lorn. He would motor along and they would feverishly try to keep pace. Then Lorn would look AT me, wink and smile, and then blast into infinity and beyond. Everyone would shudder in disbelief, throw their pick on the table and back away. We would watch this guy play and just laugh.

John Petrucci is one of the guys who graduated from that school... Apparently, everyone who goes there is some kind of miracle...
Nicole Ramos2 Nicole Ramos2 Member
11 messages
joined Dec 2006
#20 ·
Does anyone actually know where Michelangelo performed? I'm trying to figure out if he ever had a full band or if he just stuck to solo guitar stuff. All I've seen so far is that one clip, "Speed Kills"...🙏 😵 🙂

.....the guy literally plays upside down—on the top side of the neck...

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