Electric guitar icon. Monstrous technique and speed of execution capable of almost overcoming the sound barrier, as in his version of Paganini’s Capriccio Numero 5 Op. 1 relaunched in the blockbuster film “Crossroads” (“Mississippi Adventure”) by Walter Hill, which also eternalized it on the planet Hollywood as a myth in the role of the «diabolical guitarist» in the riff duel. Swords that know how to touch neurons but also the heart, two-handed tapping, alternating picking, legate, hybrid picking, whammy bar acrobatics, this and much more is Steve Vai, one of the greatest and most influential living guitarists, who literally sent the Petruzzelli of Bari the other evening, overcrowded to the point of unbelievable, and with many fans left dry due to lack of seats, in the stage of the «Inviolate Tour». An evening organized by Bass Culture which transformed the theater into a temple of rock, ended with an endless ovation, with duets in the audience who responded in chorus to the meowing, almost speaking guitar phrases of Vai: back and forth. The love for Vai is infinite, as shown in the photo published here in the dressing room alongside the jazz guitarist from Bari Alberto Parmegiani.
Despite his problems due to three tendon operations in his shoulder, when Steve holds one of his 15 Ibanez guitars, the main brand together with Gibson and Fender, whose sales as an endorser he has multiplied dramatically, he literally hypnotizes. This time, however, alternating solid-bodies such as the legendary EVO with models never used before, such as a semi-acoustic, with an extreme use also of bare fingered, dissonant and jazzed arpeggios.
62-year-old New Yorker Steven Siro Vai – his grandparents were from Dorno, in the province of Pavia and in the hinterland of Milan – who made his debut in the 1980s as the frontman and collaborator of an astonished Frank Zappa, in the Bari stage at the Petruzzelli theater he exhibited all his talent, together with the deadly band composed of: Dave Weiner (guitar and keyboards), Philip Bynoe (bass) and Jeremy Colson (drums).
It all started after the interview with the Gazzetta. The guitarist and composer after talking about his new album “Inviolate” and the contents of last Sunday’s concert, asked us if we could recommend a pastry shop where to organize the surprise party for his wife’s birthday, the American bassist Pia Maiocco, former member of the band Vixen. Which then the guitarist, thanks to our advice, at 13 o’clock he made in Salvatore Petriella’s pastry bar, set in the Politeama, with the “Seduction” cake topped by an incredible floral musical candle which then continued to play “Happy birthday Even in the basket, inexhaustible. For us, then, it was a privilege to attend the live rehearsals, for which crowds of fans paid a considerable premium, as well as entering the dressing room where, among the many delicacies, the focaccia from Bari could not be missing for which Vai lost. the head: “It’s really delicious,” his comment. Then it is he himself, humble, very affable, who asks us to immortalize our meeting with a selfie.
But let’s get to the extraordinary live. Steve Vai immediately makes his intentions clear with “Avalanche”, featured in his latest record. Music that goes from metal rock to jazz, from contemporary Zappa-style music to prog and blues. At the top there are wonderful videos, his esoteric spiritual mark rotates in three dimensions with the triangle, excerpts of videos that have made fans crazy, from the time of «Passion and Warfare» onwards. The martial «Balls of gold» falls, then the heartbreaking, super famous «Tender surrender» which is all a thrill, there are people, from 30 to 60 years, with shining eyes. The daring multiplies in the experimental prog, patches of jazz with “Lights are on”, and so on with “Candle power”, the deadly solo of the tattooed Colson that drives the crowd crazy. The altered progressions of “Greenish blues” advance, the songs follow one another with experimental variety, until Steve returns with the Jem from the led keyboard for the epochal “Bad Horsie”, yet another legendary piece of electric guitar, with a single but varied , out of key, up to the other hit, the moving «Whispering a prayer», which leads to repeated ovations, announced by a very sweet, wonderful video of a fetus that at the end shows the face of Vai as a child.
After the triumphal “Liberty”, a classic from the end of the concert, and the previous dedication to his wife “Pious love of my life”, sealed by a coexistence dating back to the ’80s, the god of the guitar, but even more of music, calls to the voice a tenor he has just discovered: the road manager who intones in Italian with him an unimaginable “For the love of god”, one of the most beautiful rock guitar songs of all time, which really launches the audience into the space of spirituality, which is the true home of this gigantic artist. Thanks, Steve.