I am not yet decided if I should be amazed or just used with Mr Vai being amazing…

So I just post this here and let you judge it. If you dare.

Bookmark It

Bookmark It

It’s always funny to see how we all love each other so much…

And fame doesn’t have much to do with it, I guess.

Bookmark It

Bookmark It

We have this international music festival here, Golden Stag, which is a brand in our area. Well, it is a music festival oriented to interpretation, so I don’t give too much attention to it. However, each night there is a special guest and this year, the special guest in the final night was …the very Mr Steve Vai! Sweet!

I wanted to be there, really, but I had a very busy weekend that required my presence here. So, I watched his show on TV.

I must say that I was a bit disappointed at first because he was alone, no band, nothing, only himself, his guitar plus a backing one and 2 Legacy amps. That’s it. Ah, yes, and the backing tracks…

During the first song, I must tell you I was asking myself why did they bring him here because somehow this very festival had not the audience for his music, I was afraid of a cold response from the public. Man, I was wrong! After the first song, the public was already hot and when he started Tender surrender, I was amazed to see people reacted!

I can say I was again impressed by the strange music he makes, even if I knew the songs (well, I must admit I didn’t know the first one); Tender surrender was cool and Build the church has such a great and interesting theme, specific to Steve Vai…

The sad news for me it was that he only played 3 songs. That’s it! 3 songs! Glad I stayed home…

Now, my thoughts after this, and you be my guest and answer them if you want:

1. Why did he only play 3 songs? Could it be because the festival was not a rock one and they tried not to piss off the public?
2. Why didn’t he bring the band? Could it be because he wanted just to test the market? If I think about the 3 songs above, it may be so, testing the audience, to see if he has a public here. Hmm, but he was here in Romania before, playing a full concert…Maybe this was all he could do for the money he got…
3. Does Steve Vai ever miss a note?
4. If Steve Vai ever misses a note, can you actually tell that? I mean he could integrate it immediately into something else, I guess that you couldn’t even tell…

What’s you take on that?

By the way, here’s a piece of the show in Brasov, tonight:

Bookmark It

Bookmark It

Lately, thanks to my baby girl, I took the habit of getting out more often, in the evening, when the heat is gone, to take evening walks and, to my surprise, I found there some old friends who have the same habit. What do you know?!

So, I found one of my old university mates, walking his baby boy in the evening. Well, time for a chat, don’t you think? From one thing to another, from what’s your life these days, from cars and jobs, we reached a common topic: music, rock music, that is. While in university we both had long hair, we both were rock fans, even if our tastes were not necessarily common.

So, we started a discussion about rock, concerts, made fun about the fact that the very moment we had that chat, Madonna is in concert in Bucharest, 100 km away from us. Who cares?

We’ve got to progressive rock, to Dream Theater, we both agreed on the fact they are “there”, then he told me he listens Tool quite a lot. I must admit I didn’t listen Tool, I knew about them but well, never listened them so far. I promised I will, because I am always open to new rock music.

Following the thread of the conversation, I asked him if he listened Vanden Plas, a band that I really enjoy listening, German progressive rock. He was not very familiar with Vanden Plas so I suggested him listen a few tracks with attention.

So, today I remembered about this and started to listen to it myself, I used to have a couple of albums of Vanden Plas, now it’s just YouTube, but it will do.

So, I just wanted to bring it to your attention, Vanden Plas, a band that is clearly for melodic progressive rock fans, great voice, great riffs, great music IMO, if you like progressive, of course.

By the way, I didn’t yet make an educated opinion on Tool, I need more time to digest it, I guess…

Here’s Tool

Here’s Vanden Plas

What’s your take on that? Any other progressive bands you’d recommend?

Bookmark It

Bookmark It

From one thing to another, from Dave Weiner’s channel on YoutTube (Got Riffs?), from his Twitter account and site, from Slipknot and John Petrucci, I’ve reached this video of Steve Vai.

I have also loved the way Steve Vai knows to make a show, beyond the music which is great and at the same time, a bit too much for the “regular” listener, it’s more like music for musicians.

Steve Vai is such a great entertainer beside being a wonderful musician, the show brings the music closer to people.

So watch this video and enjoy the show!

Bookmark It

Bookmark It

Costin, my friend and my band mate sent me this video below.

Interesting, I wonder how many of the singers out there would have recognized this on stage in font of so many people?

I am still trying to make up my mind, was it good, was it not? I mean from one point of view, the guy was honest, he could not sing anymore that night, so he called it off. But on the other hand, my first thought was he’s not what he used to be…

What do you think?

PS: I still enjoy every bit of sound David Coverdale makes with his voice

Bookmark It

Bookmark It

I was watching a live video of Chickenfoot on YouTube today, very interesting, considering the fact Joe Satriani plays a two necks guitar.

Do you remember my post of a few months ago where I was wondering if we will be able to recognize Satriani’s style and sound in Chickenfoot?

The fact is that when soloing maybe we could recognize him, but other than that, I’d say he totally reinvented his way of playing, playing for the song, not for himself, which is a great thing coming from somebody who’s known for his trademarked sound and way of playing…

So, here it is Chickenfoot live.

What do you say, how’s Satriani’s sound comparing to Flying in a blue dream or Surfing with the aliens?

Bookmark It

Bookmark It

I was reading an interview with Eric Adams from Manowar this morning and I found it very interesting to see how they compose a song. Quite very interesting, I’d say…

So I will just reproduce here that part from the interview of Eric Adams on Metal-Rules.com, I hope I won’t get complains for copying it. So here it is:

How do you guys get to where you have the songs selected? I mean, is it just…

EA: Usually it’s if, I mean, if Joey writes the song, if he comes up with the idea, he generally comes up with the idea and–I don’t know why but it is usually two or three o’clock in the morning, because I get the phone call about that time-and he’ll always say, “I can’t continue on this song until I hear if it’s in your key, if it’s good for you.”

So I come over to his house, right away, while he’s hot and we work on it together. Once we come up with a melody together, we kind of piece the song together, and then everyone gets over to his place (we have our own studio over at his place) and we work on it as a band. Then it’s a song.

Then we move on to the next one. And that’s how it is. Then, we generally go back to it after awhile, with fresh ears, and we listen to it with new ideas.

Then we add the new ideas in. Then we leave it alone for a while. Then we move on to the next song. Then we come back to that one with fresh ears again, until we come back to that song and we say, “OK, does anyone got any more ideas?” And then when everyone has said, “Nah, I can’t think of any, I think that’s it,” then that’s it-the song gets put to bed and we move on. Because you can overproduce a song as well, if you keep on it.

Personally I found it very interesting to work like this. However, they are a professional band, it would be a bit difficult to call my buddy and lead singer in the middle of the night, hey, man, come over to test a song to see if it fits your key…I imagine his joy and willingness to come over…

What do you say about it? Do you call your lead singer in the middle of the night to see how a song would sound?

Later edit: it just hit me, how could a song not be in this guy’s key? It’s said he covers 5.5 octaves! I won’t bet my life but you should listen this:

Well?!

Bookmark It

Bookmark It

Last night I’ve seen Manowar live in Bucharest, Romania.

I am a Manowar fan since highschool, waiting to see them live and be part of their show. I’ve waited this for the last 15 years, hoping they’ll get here. Last night, it happened: Manowar was here, I was there to see them, next to a lot of people of all ages…

I was very nervous since I have waited this for a long time, it was their first time in Romania, a lot of fans waited to see them…

It was a strange feeling, something that I have never felt since a long time, people dressed with t-shirts painted with Manowar, skulls, women and weird daemons, boots, spikes, all these people happy to be there. I was hearing around me people saying hey, Metallica was here, I haven’t been there, Maiden was here, I missed it, but, man, THIS IS MANOWAR, I WOULDN’T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD!!

My thoughts exactly!

Metallica was here, Maiden, Saxon, Helloween, I wasn’t there. Even Vai, I missed that too. But I really wanted to go to see Manowar!

I planned this with Michelle, my band mate and long time school friend, he purchased the tickets to section A, right in front of the stage.

So we headed to Bucharest. Unfortunately, I realized I don’t have anyone of my old t-shirts with skulls, none, fuck, none! The meanest t-shirt I had it was one begging “Please give beer…”. Pathetic…Michelle had one with what he called a dog head with fangs. Later he came back to this and pretended it was some kind of a monster…right. We just couldn’t go to Manowar like this, so we started to look for a “mean” t-shirt. I knew a shop where they used to sell such shirts, I remember I wanted to buy one with Megadeth a couple of weeks ago, so I headed there, the shop was not there anymore…I called Costin, the lead singer, he pointed me to the mall. Right, we went there and we realized these days, “mean t-shirts” come also on pink and orange. Fuck, no!

So we got to Bucharest, reached the location, but we weren’t sure where exactly it was so while at a stop, I lowered the window to ask the guy to my left where’s the location exactly. I looked at them: nice car, “corporate” look for the driver, lady next to him dressed sharp, with large sunglasses, again “corporate” look…hmm… ok, let’s give it a try: where’s the…the guy looks at me and asks me: to Manowar you mean? I would have liked to see my facial expression, probably my jaw was somewhere on the floor…yes…we go there too!

To make a long story short, we bought t-shirts from the band stand, honestly not much to choose from, but hey, any tshirt that says Manowar will do…

At 9 PM we’ve heard the classic “Ladies and gentlemen, from the United States of America, please hail: MANOWAR!” Fuck, yeaaah! The stage exploded in lights and sound and the show started…

I must tell you I’ve felt like never before, everything was happening right there in front of my eyes, at 15 meters, Eric Adams, Joey DeMaio, Karl Logan and Donny Hamzik (as a temporary replacement for Scott Columbus).

Man, these guys rule! I know they play a role, I am not stupid, but I’ve felt great! Classic hits started to flow, it was damn loud, my langs were pounding from drum kicks and everything was there like it should be. Eric Adams is, as I have always thought, a great frontman, a great performer, he entered the role and played it the way he should.

Classic, “trademarked” high screams and low “Ha!” from his throat, gesture and facial expression, everything was great.

So we reached the 3rd song, if I well remember, Kings of metal! A classic…

In the middle of the song, right on a drum beat, everything shut down. We, the audience, not realizing what it was, continued to sing. Eric Adams was hitting the mic with his palm, the mic was dead. We realized something was wrong, they left the stage: the power was down! Fuck!

The power failure lasted like 20 minutes, moment when Joey came on stage and walking like an emperor started to question us: Did Metallica come here?! Yeaaah!! Did they have problems with not having enough power? Nooo!Maiden was here? Yeaah!Did they have problems with not having enough power? Nooo!Motorhead was here? Yeaah!(2 days ago) Again, they didn’t have power problems. But we did, because we were the loudest band int he world!!!

Yeah, OK, you fixed it well!

What happened was that a generator just exploded shutting everything down.

So they started again the same song, 3-4 lyrics and powww!!! Fuck! Come on! Not again!!

Third’s time was fine, but it was obvious they were pissed off, Eric Adams lost his nerve, his joy to sing. The song was flawless, but something was missing, they were singing like waiting for something to happen. But it didn’t! Everything went fine!

Then, he started to sing Heart of steel! Only himself and the piano. Man, I must tell you at that moment, I had a feeling I have never felt before: I was part of a wall of sound, everybody was singing, note by note, word by word. I knew every word of the song, so did the rest of the crowd. Eric Adams was happy, you could see it in his eyes, he stopped singing at a moment because the whole crowd was singing, you could see on his face that he feels good being on stage in such moments…

I can tell you at that moment I had a strange feeling, I felt (don’t laugh or smile) tears in my eyes, it was something unbelievable, effectively a wall of sound, every single voice in the audience was singing…you need to be there to understand…

For a band that was never to Romania that was huge, that was wonderful.

At one moment, Joey DeMaio remained on stage and…started to speak Romanian. Not that classic I love you Romania, but like 15 minutes of speaking Romanian! Damn, Romanian is not an easy language! I know they were telling him in his ears what to say, but this guy pronounced it word by word! For 15 minutes!

I remember at one moment a guy in front of me screamed to the stage something like, My man, you are Romanian, man!! and everybody started to laugh there. It was mad, this guy actually worked for the show here, he made his homework! Looking on the back of my tshirt, he probably had the same speech in Finland, Norway and Germany! Now, that’s a dare to learn the speech in many languages that you don’t know, for 15 minutes! I know he is Italian and probably Romanian comes easier on him, if he actually speaks Italian, but that was an effort I appreciated!

As other observations, they gave a guitar to a guy they picked from the audience and asked them to play on stage with them they played together a song, then they signed the guitar, had a couple of sexist moments inviting girls on stage and behind the stage, but OK, it’s part of the show, I understand that.

I’ve got home at 3AM, tired but happy, today my throat hurts when I speak, but I am really happy I was there, for me it meant a lot, I have waited this for 15 years and now I was there. I wish they would have played more, more hits, cutting those moments with the guitar given to the guy and the ladies, and just play a few songs more, but hey, a show’s a show!

I can tell you now I feel happy and content…

I have seen Manowar live! Now I will be waiting for Satriani, I guess…

Later edit: I have found a couple of videos from yesterday night:

and Heart of steel

PS: 2 days ago Santana played in the same festival and 3 days ago, Motorhead

Bookmark It

Bookmark It

So I have this Accept compilation CD in my car and I keep on listening a few songs on my way home or from home. I was curious about a few things so, reading on Wikipedia about the history of Accept, I found that the song I’m a rebel was initially composed for ACDC. Hmm…

Even more curious, I wanted to know what was the relationship between ACDC and Accept, because one of the songs I like the most from their discography, Hard attack, seems like made for ACDC. Even the way the guitar is being played makes me think of ACDC. Actually I have always seen Accept as being ACDC on steroids so…

Well, coming back to I’m a rebel, here’s what Wikipedia has to say about it:

“I’m a Rebel” is an unreleased song written by Angus and Malcolm Young’s older brother, Alex Young, and recorded on 15 September 1976, during sessions outside Albert Productions without George Young and Harry Vanda. Reportedly, Bon Scott was very drunk when the song was recorded. The recording remains in Albert Productions vaults. In 1980 the German heavy metal group Accept covered it and the original is said to be close to Accept’s version.

Anyway, honestly I couldn’t see ACDC on this song, but man I would hear them on Hard attack…

So, here’s Accept version of I’m a rebel

UDO’s version, meaner, I’d say

And here’s Hard attack…

Now, tell me if you wouldn’t see Brian Johnson on the chorus of this one…Even the guitar screams ACDC…

Bookmark It

Bookmark It