G3 - Live in Denver

Starring: Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen Director: A Karim Karmi Dvd Release: 1st March, 2004 Number Of Discs: 1 Format: PAL, Region 2 Encoding

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Ok, anyone whos seen the previous G3 DVD will know how disappointing it was. So, the big question is, does this DVD make up for it?

Youre damn right it does! The trio of Joe Satriani, Steve Vai & guest, Yngwie Malmsteen is just perfect; Satch provides the coolness, technical wizardry & innovation, Vai provides the all-round amazingness & Yngwie provides the...emmm...comedy!??

Yes, it seems as if Mr Malmsteen is stuck in a time warp! Its impossible to date this madman & hes totally off the wall what with his mad hair, weird dress sense & awesome stage presence; throwing his guitar up in the air & round his back at every available opportunity. Its these traits that ALMOST distract you from the fact that Yngwie is probably the fastest guitarist in the world, looking scarily like something from an 80s pop-music video.

So whats the content actually like? Well you get more than the original three songs per guitarist, as was the case on the last G3 DVD & Satrianis first filmed performance of the awesome Starry Night fits in nicely but its still not the same as getting the full show. Satch performs his set slightly on the quiet side with not quite as much heart as he shows on Live In San Francisco & he doesnt even have the same, awesome backing band. Vai, however, outperforms his teacher with the aid of the aforementioned triple-neck guitar which is totally crazy. Yngwie Malmsteens set is awesome although his song writing skills arent quite up to Satchs of even Vais standards although he really does make the former two guitar Gods look slow.

And so, the famous G3 jam rounds off the show. Each guitarist sings on one track & all three play guitar in their selected styles. Satch lays down some beautiful melodies, Vai fills in all the technical parts & Yngwie fills in every available quiet moment with a zillion notes-per-second & a lot of roof-raising stage mannerisms--something that viewers who arent total die-hard fans will really appreciate as he really does bring a new dimension to G3. His gruff voice on the cover of Voodoo Child works really well & it was the perfect choice for him.

All in all, awesome for die-hard fans of Satch & Vai. Plus, itll also provide enough entertainment for people who just want to see some crazy speed playing & generally the spectacle of some great guitar players having a good time.

Steven Siro Vai is an American guitarist, composer & record producer, notable for having received a Grammy Award & being cited as an influence by many guitarists from the 1980s & onwards. // When growing up, the young Vai became interested in rock giants such as Jimi Hendrix, Alice Cooper & Led Zeppelin which led him to take up learning the guitar. Prior to attending Berklee College of Music & graduating at GIT, the guitar institute of technology, Steve frequently jammed with fellow guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani & played in numerous local bands. He has acknowledged the influence of many guitarists, including Jeff Beck & fusion virtuoso Allan Holdsworth. It was also at this time that he became fascinated by the music of Frank Zappa. Steve mailed transcriptions of Zappas guitar solos to him & after meeting Vai for the first time he was so impressed with the abilities of the young musician, Zappa hired him to do work transcribing his seemingly endless array of experimental symphonic rock.

Editors Choice: Steve Vai, Alien Love Secrets, G3, View DVDology

Yngwie J Malmsteen is a guitarist from Sweden who achieved widespread acclaim in the 1980s due to his technical proficiency & fusion of classical music elements with heavy rock guitar. Born into a musical family in Stockholm on June 30, 1963, Malmsteen was exposed to classical music from an early age & began playing guitar at the age of eight. Malmsteen was in his teens when he first encountered the music of the 19th-century violin virtuoso Niccolo Paganini, whom he cites as his biggest classical influence. Through his emulation of these pieces on guitar, Malmsteen developed a prodigious technical fluency. Malmsteen also cites Jimi Hendrix, Genesis, Uli Jon Roth & Deep Purple as influences. Malmsteens contributions to the evolution of modern rock guitar, particularly his embracing of modal progressions & classical-influenced techniques not widely used in rock music, mark him out as a unique figure in the musical world. // In late 1982 Malmsteen was brought to the USA by Mike Varney of Shrapnel Records who had heard a demo tape of Malmsteens playing.

Editors Choice: Live, G3, View DVDology

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