The ultamite show would include joe, steve, buckethead, and ron thal! Boy would I be pissed if I would to miss that one.

"my mother likes the melody progressions in some early Metallica...oh hang on, she also likes some Yngwie..."
It should also be pointed out that she thought that Van Halen & Van Morrison were one & the same :-)

Deep Purple, weren't they some kinda blues band?

Hahahahaha

I'd forgotten about that

What about "Chevy Van"?

Woohoo. I have the tickets! Dodgy seats, but that's what happens when you're not sure whether you can go until the last minute.

It's the last gig on the tour too. Should be great.

How was the gig - although I know the answer will just depress me and make me jealous:-)

Well, visibility was excellent considering I was basically in the farthest seat from the stage. The Orpheum in Boston is pretty small. The sound back there was pretty bad unfortunately - it got muddied out too easily by drums and bass, and vocals (fortunately few as could be expected) were virtually non-existent.

Yngwie was up first, and hasn't changed much since I last saw him in the Hammersmith Odeon during his Eclipse tour. (I can't even remember which year that was... LOL). One noticeable addition is a pot belly - apparantly Miami Beach life doesn't involve much excercise. He is still insanely fast and entertaining - drop-kicking picks at the audience, throwing guitars at his tech etc. Still likes to be the center of attention on stage. Musically, I thought that he murdered a couple of his best tracks (Black Star and Far Beyond the Sun) by overplaying - the signature melodies seemed to get lost amongst all the improvised notes. He did play an immense acoustic track, and he also played an orchestral movement using an effects box to sound like the whole string section of an orchestra, and amazingly enough, actually sounded like the whole string section of an orchestra as opposed to some guy with a guitar and effects box. I was impressed.

Joe came out _third_ looking like a skateboarder. He played a set comprised of tracks mostly from SWtA, Engines of Creation and Strange Beautiful Music, and with the notable exeption of Midnight they were energetic tracks. He played great, and the show was well orchestrated with the lighting effects etc, but I felt that he never quite totally connected with the audience. He was just getting there when his set ended rather abruptly - none of the crowd realised for a few seconds and were waiting for the next track.
It was great, but just not as great as when I saw him last year on the SBM tour last year - I think that he needed more than 45 minutes, and a couple of more mellow tracks in the middle would have helped.

Now you're probably wondering about Steve who actually played second. I left him for last because I have trouble expressing in words his set. He started it by simply walking onto the stage and introducing himself - whilst the house lights were still up. No fussing around, he just said a few words of introduction, solicited another round of applause for Yngwie and then sat down with his triple neck Jem and got on with it. He started with a long and beautiful improvised piece using all three necks, at one point calling over Dave Weiner to help fret one of them. It was pretty amazing to watch. Then he played The Reaper which was a bit unexpected. Throughout his set it was obvious that he and his band were having a complete blast on stage. He then explained how he'd met his wife when they were both studying at Berklee (in Boston), before dedicating Whispering A Prayer to her. whereapon it became obvious that he was stealing the show. I've never seen anyone pour as much feeling and emotion into an instrument before - somehow he seems to have an almost magical connection to it. Not even just the guitar, but his amps and effects too. If he needed the guitar to squeal 'just so', it did. As I said earlier, I just cannot do it justice.
After a few more blissful tracks, he ended with FTLoG where he made me cry (again). It was even better than the live version on the previous G3 CD, Just totally emotional.
I actually found it difficult to applaud after WAP and FTLoG. He nailed those tracks and he already knew it. Despite the audience having paid for their tickets, I don't believe for a minute that he played those tracks to entertain us. He played for himself and applause just seemed completely superflous, an intrusion on a private moment.
I could have watched Steve play all week.

Anyway, rounding out the night was G3, all three on stage together. Yngwie was too loud, and...well, Yngwie.
Joe and Steve were totally in the zone, trading licks off each other with ease, and seemed quite happy to let Yngwie run around the stage by himself. Unfortunately by this time my ears were complaining, and with 3 guitarists on stage with the backline, you can imagine that it was loud and sometimes a bit muddy up in the cheap seats. But it was still immense to see my 3 favorite guitar virtuosos on stage together. and something that I never thought I'd see.

<sigh>

Sounds awesome!

Last time I saw any of them Joe was playing at Glasgow SECC...looking like a skateboarder

Not sure if the three of them are intending to come over again - will continue my hunt through the booking sites.

he ended with FTLoG where he made me cry (again).

Boy am I glad I am not the only one who gets all choked up on that song. Not because of any memory or experience associated with it but his emotion on that song is just so damn powerful it pours right through every single time.
Hold on.....................ok, just had to cue it up on the empeg.

I have to agree with your comments about Steve Vai. I've never seen him live, but on all the video I've seen of him, it's obvious that he truly loves the music, every microsecond of it.

I'll admit to not paying attention: when did Yngwie replace Eric Johnson in G3?

I'll admit to not paying attention: when did Yngwie replace Eric Johnson in G3?

Never. G3 is a thing where Steve and Joe do a tour that includes a third guest guitarist, and the third guitarist always changes. The album and the DVD that you're familiar with were made the year that Eric Johnson was the guest guitarist.

I've looked but haven't seen anything about a European G3 tour, but they are going to release a CD and DVD from this tour.

There's a short tour promo video on www.satriani.com that's worth checking out.

Ok. That's a good answer

I caught this last month in California.

Guess who made a surprise guest appearance during the jam session
as the *fourth* guitarist....

Neal Schon.

I'll have to admit that after that I was wondering if Santana and perhaps Alex Lifeson
were also waiting in the wings to come out and "give it that last
little push." (Santana because he's local. Lifeson because, well, he's Lifeson.)

As much as I love the guy, I don't think Alex would work well jamming with G3. I could definitely see Schon in there, he fits the style well. But Al's playing style doesn't fit that ensemble well. (I'd love to be proven wrong of course.)

A gentle irony;

Steve Vai, during a recent mid-tour interview was asked who he'd like to work with that he hadn;t already done so, and answered, "Carlos Santana".
On the vai.com forums, a recent thread entitled, "Most over-rated guitarist" had the same name winning.