Live Review : Steve Vai @ O2 Ritz, Manchester on June 5th 2022

Widdly, widdly, widdly, widdly, widdly… There you go that’s my review. Least that is what Stewart Lucas said I should write about tonight, so I guess my work here is done?!! 

Well, maybe not quite. However, given in my latest review (for Creeper last weekend) I clearly stated I cannot do commentary on composition and melodies, rather lyrics and vocals are where it is all at… this review might be a slight challenge for me. 

So, if you have come here for a detailed review of guitar playing and all that entails you are more than likely going to be disappointed. 

Here is the extent of my guitar vocabulary – strings, picks, whammy bar, pedals, distortion, frets, solo, tapping, hammer-on, tabs, strum, pull offs… Slash, Eddie Van Halen, Joe Satriani, Jimi Hendrix…

I know as much about guitar playing as a 13-year-old kid that got thrown out of school choir for being tone deaf. Oh, and the 14-year-old who got 38% in their Year 9 music exam, which included a very poor rendition of ‘Nothing Else Matters’ on acoustic guitar. The letters after her name prove she’s good at something though (history not music).

I arrive with some time to spare and am greeted by a sea of testosterone. A mix of ages but predominantly men. The place is pretty packed but given I was still getting Facebook ads over the last few days and upstairs is closed off, definitely not a sell-out. This somewhat surprises me but I hadn’t heard about it other than by looking at listings. And let’s face it, we all know gigs and festivals are really struggling at the min, which is why it is so important to get out and see the bands and artists you love if you can.

So tonight, kicks off with no support band… because why would one of the best guitarists on earth need a support band? They are straight into one of the latest songs, ‘Avalancha’ off the new album “Inviolate” and it sounds exactly how I expected it to. Wonderful. I think it is my favourite from the album.

For every song, Vai is handed a different guitar. From my view by the side of stage I count 13 guitars hung up, which I guess if you are Mister Vai is only a small fraction of his collection. I would comment on how pretty they are but that would be far too girlie. I can see him, guitarist Dave Weiner and occasionally glimpse the bassist, Philip Bynoe, but sadly cannot see the drummer Jeremy Colson, or most of the wild graphics on the screen back of stage, but I’m tucked out of the way where I am so stay put.  

Steve introduces the band, says it’s only their second show in three and a half years (the tour having started in Glasgow on Saturday) and he also says they are celebrating his birthday. 62 years old on June 6th! Phenomenal. He gives a little speech about life lessons in doing what you want; his life is clearly testimony to that and I wholeheartedly echo his sentiments.

For those who do not know, Steve Vai has been touring as an independent artist for 30 years but before that he played with the likes of Frank Zappa, Whitesnake and David Lee Roth. He first learnt guitar underJoe Satriani, which of course explains everything. 

My introduction to Steve Vai was watching the legendary Raw Power (ITV programme) in 1993 with my older brother. The album “Sex and Religion” had been released and Vai was interviewed alongside a then relatively unknown, Devin Townsend, who was on vocals. The show included videos for ‘Deep Down into the Pain’ and my all-time favourite Vai track ‘In My Dreams with You’. I also witnessed for the first time ‘For the Love of God’ and my little teenage mind was well and truly blown! 

But back to the gig… Vai has toured with this line-up for ten years and although he says they are blowing the cobwebs away there are only a few hiccups along the way. One when he is having trouble with his pedals and later when he messes up proclaiming he’d forgotten how sweaty it gets on stage! We are treated to a 2-hour set of new and old songs and truth be told I know none of them, bar one. Midway through the set we are treated to a guitar solo from Dave (no pressure, though I guess if you have toured with Vai for a decade, you are probably pretty confident by now!) and also a drum solo. There is some chatter with the audience, but the band are really focused on performing and enjoying themselves after such a long time away. The audience meanwhile seem fairly subdued but given tonight’s setlist is lots of new songs that probably explains it… and how does one move to purely instrumental rock music? 

We are treated to a back-to-back onslaught of fast tempo numbers, lots of widdling, alongside some equally impressive drumming and bass. The songs are mostly from 2000 onwards including ‘Giant Balls of Gold’ from 2001’s “Alive in an Ultra World”, perhaps an influence for Gorija’s ‘Stranded’? ‘Building the Church’ from 2005’s “Real Illusions: Reflections” album and ‘I’m Becoming’ from 2007’s “Sound Theories Vol. I and II” which comes with a stunning accompanying visual display of conception, which I can just make out from behind the speaker stack. We also get ‘Bad Horsie’ from 2001, which sounds very much like ‘In My Dreams with You” without the lyrics, so not as good but almost! The set is interspersed with tracks from the new album including ‘Candlepower’, ‘Zeus in Chains’ and ‘Sandman Cloud Mist’. Well worth a listen. 

Towards the end of the set, we get some of the older songs, ‘Liberty’ from 1990, and finally the one song I know! ‘For the Love of God’. To say this was heavenly would of course be cheesy as hell (all the puns intended) but the whole ten-minute mastery of it was otherworldly. I start to get achy arms about 7 minutes into filming, but this is something worth capturing (not least to send to my brother in Australia) and is the highlight of the night. If you are unfamiliar with Vai’s work this is the song to start with. We get one final song, for which Vai exits the stage and walks down the front to greet his fans and at 10pm the band say their farewells after a respectable 2 hours set. It’s been a memorable night of music from one of the most influential guitarist of our times.