I went to see the Steve Vai show at Lorca, Murcia (Spain) with 3 friends.

We arrived at the Fortaleza del Sol (the fortress of the sun) early and we parked as high as we could. It was a very sunny and hot day. The entrance area was only about 400 meters from the parking. In the 5 minutes it took us to reach the entrance we realized that the name of the fortress was very well chosen.

According to the ticket, the doors should be opened at 20:00 but until 20:25 they didn’t let us to pass the first security control. In the second security point we were about 100 meters from the stage and the band was in the sound check. The firsts of the queue were able to see “The audience is listening” and a part of “All about Eve”. A few minutes later (20:40), they finally let us to go to the stage. The first row was full of people with EVO ticket (mostly foreigners, probably on vacation in the beaches of Murcia or Alicante). We were lucky enough to get to the second row. I think there were about 1000 people to see Steve. While we wait we were able to see how the ligths of the stage were being adjusted. Talk about security at work:

Before Vai, Zack Wiesinger played a few songs (he started playing at 21:30). He used a very little amp, his clothes were strange to say the least, and he was doing stupid things. I don’t know if he takes drugs or likes to look like a fool:

I missed Eric Sardinas a lot. Vai should call Jorge Salan to open his shows (at least in Spain).

Steve Vai started playing Now we run at 22:15. The sound was really loud in the first couple of songs. I’m glad I bought Etymotic ER-20 earplugs after going to the Jorge Salan show (I had my ears ringing for 5 days after that show :P). The drums and the bass were dominant and it was difficult to hear the main guitar. After oooo, the mixing was better, main guitar was more audible, but IMO the bass and drums were still too loud. Probably being so close to the stage wasn’t the best place to talk about it, but…

One of the greatest moments of the night was when Steve played Tender Surrender. This song should always be in the set list. It’s awesome to see him playing it as it was easy. Just to criticize a little, he didn’t play the pinch harmonics of the songs.

There was something wrong during Firewall. Steve started to sing it pretty good, but at the middle of the song, he didn’t finish all sentences, and was out of time several times. Also the “Boom Shika-Boom” part after the solo was completely wrong. Steve looked around during it and then a sample of it was played.
Dave played Shove the sun aside from his album of the same name.

The musicians in the band were great. However, Billy Sheehan can’t be replaced. Don’t get me wrong, Bryan Beller is good, but Billy is from out of this world and another showman. I really missed him. The violinist (Alex DePue and Ann Marie Calhoun) gave another flavor to Vai’s songs. Their virtuosism was evident and one of the highlights of the night was when they played the crossroad’s duel. They also had a keyboard next to them, but I don’t recall hearing it very much during the show.

When Jeremy started to play with Steve with his “portable drum kit”, an electric problem surfaced and most of the equipment stopped working. After 3 tries, Steve went down the stage waiting for the technicians to fix it. It was 23:35. More than 20 minutes later the problem was still there. For a moment I thought that there was a chance for the show to be cancelled, but fortunately the problem was solved and the show was resumed at 00:10. Steve seemed to be a bit upset for the problem, and was a bit serious for a while, but in a few minutes he was like before the problem.

The band continued playing the songs. Steve was brilliant singing All about eve. I don’t know what happened in firewall. The show ended with his most famous song, For the love of God, as good as always. The band left the stage at 01:10.

It is really awesome to see Steve playing the guitar. It seems so easy watching him. Also, his eye contact with the audience is awesome. The other members of the band has a glazed look while they were playing. However Steve was gesticulating all the time, staring at different people from time to time, looking at their reaction... Cool!

The set list was:

Now we run
Oooo
Building the church
Tender surrender
Firewall
The attitude song
Dave weiner solo (Shove the sun aside)
I’m becoming
Die to Live
Freak Show Excess
Angels food
Violin solo (Crossroads)
Jeremy & Steve
All about eve
Drum solo
The murder
Juice
Whispering a prayer
Taurus bulba
Liberty
Answers
For the Love of God

I don’t know why Steve didn’t played The crying machine and Light of the moon. Maybe the electric problems were the culprit, so they have to reduce the show a little or as it was late, they were too tired. Anyway, we had a great show and had a lot of fun with the band, and that’s the most important thing.

I uploaded a few videos of the show:

Alex & Ann Marie - Crossroads solo

For the love of God

Tender Surrender

Oooo (solo)

Building the church (solo)

Dave Weiner - Shove the sun aside

My trip to London was very good. I went with 4 friends and with my girlfriend. We flew with Ryanair and arrived to the Stansted Airport. To return to Spain we flew with FlyMonarch and departed from Gatwick. It seems that I look like a dangerous person or something because I was the only one of us that had to submit to random searches before taking both flights.

Our hotel was the Jurys at Kensington (quite nice BTW). We were almost exclusively in central London (tube zones 1 and 2), and we visited a lot of things:

- St. Paul’s cathedral – nearly 700 stairs to arrive to the top.

I took this some pics at the top to do a cool panoramic image although I didn’t take enough to have a perfect panorama…
- Tower of London – I expected more from this.

- Tower Bridge – Nice one, but we couldn’t watch it at night.


- Kensington Palace – The garden was very nice. We aren’t used to see big green gardens because where I live we have drought contingences.

- British Museum – just a quick visit because it is BIG. It’s amazing how many things they have “taken” from other cultures…



- Big Ben and Houses of Parliament – I was a bit disappointed when I saw it during the day. However during the night the lighting added the beauty that was missing during the day.

- London Eye – We didn’t try it as I didn’t like big wheels very much.

- Namco Station – Couldn’t resist seeing a 35000 square feet place with a lot of arcade games. Unfortunately there wasn’t any old arcade machine.

- Trafalgar Square and Picadilly Circus – we needed to see this to make our London visit more complete.

- Portobello – The girls really need to go to the Portobello market…

- Westminster abbey – Very nice, but we run out of time so we couldn’t enter…

- Natural History Museum – The building was big and beautiful and the museum was cool. Very recommended, especially if you have kids.

- Buckingham Palace – There was a lot of people for the changing of guard, but for me it was an incredibly boring experience.

Some things that surprised me:

- Those “Look Left” and “Look right” labels near the pedestrian crossings.
- The quantity of foreigners in the city.
- The weather. Where we came from we usually have sun and about 40ºC from june to September and it is very rare to see some rain. However in London, there wasn’t more than 20ºC and the weather changes a lot. It rains a lot of times a day. Now, I understand a lot better why they love our sunny beaches ;)
- Most of the houses were very pretty and no more than 3 or 4 floors.

The excuse to go to London was to see Aerosmith at the Hyde Park Calling on Sunday. We had early access to the festival, but before Aerosmith there were 6 hours to wait where other bands were playing… we arrived at 12:00 and the festival ended at 22:30. I also wanted to see Joe Satriani that was playing in another stage an hour before Aerosmith, however, when we arrived to the main stage, it was clear that leaving the stage and returning to it was a more than difficult task, so we didn’t move from there.

We say the following bands: The Micki Free Electric Blues, Archid, The Answer, Jet, Chris Cornell and Aerosmith. Unfortunately, it was raining most of the time. Light showers most of the time, but it only stopped when Aerosmith started the show.

I was pretty tired before the festival for all our walks to see London, and after 8 hours stand up, I was really tired. When Aerosmith appeared my legs were a bit more responsive, but after the show I went quickly to the hotel because I was exhausted. The set list was very short:

- Love In An Elevator
- Same Old Song And Dance
- Cryin'
- Eat The Rich
- I Don't Want To Miss A Thing
- Jaded
- Baby Please Don't Go
- Hangman Jury / Seasons Of Wither
- Dream On
- Livin' On The Edge
- Stop Messin' Around
- Sweet Emotion
- Draw The Line
- Walk This Way (with Darryl McDaniels (DMC)) 

The show was excellent but only 80 minutes! Are they that old that they can play for two hours? We all left Hyde Park a bit angry because of that. 80 minutes do not compensate a 2000 Km travel and more than 10 hours stand up. At least we were in 15th row thanks to the early entrance tickets.

Here are some pics and videos of the show:

To sum up, we enjoyed a lot our visit to London. It’s sad to hear the news about the current status in London due to terrorists threats.

Another year ends and a new one comes. Life goes as fast as usual and we’re keep on our way. It’s time to think about it… our actions, hopes, wishes, mistakes, etc.

I usually listen to a special song a few minutes after the start of the year. In the last few years I have been choosing "Aerosmith – Full Circle" because it has special connotations for me.

I wish you the best in the coming year.

El mes pasado en Murcia hubo un macro concierto, al Rock & Roll Stars, en el que actuaron Luis Rodrigo, Stafas, Elefantes, Elefantes, Ariel Rot y Loquillo, pero al que no me animé a ir puesto que no me convencía mucho el cartel (prácticamente de todos los que venían solo me gustaba Loquillo)  y la entrada era bastante cara. Sin embargo, conozco a gente que fue y me hablaron bastante bien del concierto de Loquillo por lo que me arrepentí en parte. Sin embargo, tuve suerte y me enteré que Loquillo volvía por aquí cerca (a unos 35 Km de Murcia)  y me animé a ir al concierto.

El concierto fue en Alhama de Murcia, donde había una concentración de moteros a nivel nacional, lo que nos ayudó enormemente a encontrar el sitio puesto que solamente había que seguir el goteo de motos “Harley Davidson” que había por la carretera.

Llegamos pronto al complejo deportivo donde se celebraba el concierto y nos llamó la atención la cantidad de moteros que había (sobre unos 2000, según comentaban). Era una imagen curiosa, todo lleno de tiendas de campaña y cada una con la moto al lado. Había un buen ambiente, se notaba que se lo estaban pasando bien.

Una vez dentro del recinto del concierto, nos sorprendió lo que vimos dentro. Nada más entrar, había un pequeño “mercadillo” con todo tipo de cosas para moteros. Pasado el mercadillo había un toro mecánico un tanto original como se muestra en las fotos:

La espera hasta que empezaron a tocar los teloneros se hizo bastante amena gracias a un tipo que estaba cantando y tocando (casi siempre con la guitarra, aunque de vez en cuando con la armónica) clásicos, y que para mí fue la sorpresa agradable de la noche. Aquí teneis una foto del personaje:

Pinchando aquí podeis bajaros un video de él (la iluminación en general era bastante mala incluso durante el concierto, así que las fotos y videos son bastante oscuras). Estaban apunto de empezar a tocar los teloneros por lo que no le dejaron tocar Johnny B. Goode (una lástima, me encanta esa canción).

Nos dirigimos hacia el escenario y pillamos primera fila aprovechando que la gente no se decidía a acercarse. Nos pusimos por la parte derecha del escenario (craso error, como comento más adelante) puesto que el guitarrista principal en el DVD de loquillo se quedaba tocando en ese lado la mayor parte del tiempo y era la única zona vacía del principio.

De la Bond Scout Band no conocía nada, tan solo había leído en Internet que eran muy parecidos a AC/DC. Desde luego la descripción no podía haberlos definido mejor puesto que son una banda tributo a AC/DC. Fijaos la pinta del guitarrista principal:

Clavada al guitarrista de AC/DC, además de ser bastante competente con su Gibson SG Standard, aunque demasiado payaso, la verdad. La banda no llegó a conectar mucho con el público porque no parecía haber mucho fan de AC/DC por allí. La única canción algo tarareada fue highway to hell, con la que se despidieron para dar paso a Loquillo y los Trogloditas. Aquí os pongo un pequeño video de los teloneros.

Al estar en primera fila se oían los comentarios de los seguratas mientras se preparaba el escenario, en los que decían que su manager estaba poniendo pegas a la seguridad y alguna chorrada más.

Los espacios se reducían por momentos. Todo estaba listo para el comienzo del concierto. Tras unos minutos empezó sonando la música de la guerra de las galaxias para posteriormente salir Loquillo al escenario mientras se empezaban a oír los primeros compases de Rock & Roll actitud. La respuesta del público fue espléndida.

Loquillo estuvo bastante bien considerando que los años no pasan en balde. La experiencia acumulada hace que se sienta muy cómodo en el escenario.

Aquí os pongo unas fotos del concierto:

Desgraciadamente Guillermo Martín no estaba en el escenario por culpa del tumor que le encontraron hace poco y tuvimos que conformarnos con la presencia de Jaime Stinus (que no es poco). Personalmente, hubiera preferido que estuviera Guillermo Martín, puesto que Jaime no ejecuta los solos con una dinámica tan cuidada como Guille (comparad el final de Todo el mundo ama a Isabel del DVD del BEC con el video que pongo y veréis a lo que me refiero…). Además, Jaime tiene la tendencia de irse hacia el centro del escenario, por lo que desde el sitio en el que estábamos era bastante raro poder ver los trastes de su guitarra…

El público estuvo entregado durante todo el concierto, sobre todo en feo, fuerte y formal, todo el mundo ama a Isabel, el ritmo del garaje y el rompeolas.

Lamentablemente, tras tocar autopista, se fueron del escenario para no volver. Todos nos quedamos expectantes varios minutos esperando a que salieran, pues pensábamos que era imposible que se fuera sin tocar el gran éxito “Cadillac Solitario” (compuesta por Sabino Méndez). Otra conversación de los seguratas hacía presagiar lo peor: “Acaba de pedir las toallas. Este ya no vuelve, te lo digo yo”. El público no dejó de pedir que volvieran e incluso cantó la canción, pero era algo inútil.

Tonto de mí, pensaba que iba a terminar el concierto con Rock & Roll Star y Cadillac Solitario y me había reservado parte de la memoria para grabar esas canciones. En fín, un triste final para un concierto muy bueno hasta ese momento.

La lista de canciones (set list) del concierto fue:

1. Rock & Roll actitud.
2. La Sonrisa de Risi.
3. Pégate a mí.
4. Veteranos.
5. Arte y Ensayo.
6. El hijo de nadie.
7. Feo, Fuerte y Formal.
8. Cuando fuimos los mejores.
9. Rock suave.
10. Quiero acariciar el Rock & Roll.
11. Las chicas del Roxy.
12. Todo el mundo ama a Isabel.
13. Ritmo del Garaje.

-- aquí la banda se toma un pequeño descanso --

14. Territorios Libres.
15. Tatuados.
16. El Rompeolas.
17. Autopista.

Aquí pongo unos cuantos videos del concierto (en formato XVID 300 Kbps @ 640x480. Utiliza guardar como) :

- El ritmo del garaje
- Todo el mundo ama a isabel
- El rompeolas
- Presentación de los guitarristas

Nota: he retocado el post, puesto que cuando lo escribí estaba un poco enfadado por como terminó el concierto y rajé más de la cuenta. Pido perdón por ello.

Another year and another Grammy that Steve Vai lost.

This time the one who "won" the best rock instrumental performance (the only Grammy I really pay attention to) was Les Paul, "The father of the electric guitar". I've heard 69 Freedom Special and IMHO Lotus Feet is a lot better, but you now what a Grammy is... I can understand that music is very subjective and everybody has his preferences, so congrats to Les Paul.

However what happened last year was an armed robbery. Just listen to Brian Wilson's Mrs O'Leary's cow (a two minute "song") and then to Steve Vai's Whispering a prayer. Jeff Beck's songs were very good but this... speechless!

I'm telling this because I really like Steve Vai's music. I don't travel too much and last November I went to Madrid (500 Km from home) just to see him live. It was an awesome 4 hour show (my girlfriend was a bit sceptic because he only knew some songs but she loved it too). Here's a pic of the show:

Just in case you haven't listened to Steve Vai I'll recommend you to listen to “The Seventh Song”. Even my parents like it ;-)
Steve Vai makes music for a lot of people. “Non-initiated people” usually like ballads only, so that’s why I recommend you to listen to “The Seventh Song” because it has only ballads on it. If you like to go deeper into his music you can listen to “Passion and Warfare”. His official web site is:

http://www.vai.com

IMHO his latest album, Real Illusions: Reflections, is not one of his best, but there are great songs in it. One of the greatest moments of the show was when Steve played the tapping of Building the Church (listen to Whitesnake’s Sweet Lady Luck to listen to a similar tapping by Steve Vai). Fortunately I was able to record a few minutes of the show with my digital camera so you can download the solo here (use save as to download it. You need to have a XVID codec to watch it. The quality is not very good but it’s enough for me to remember that great show!).

Every time I watch it I’m tempted to pick up my guitar and start to learn that tapping, but after my quadruple tendonitis in my elbows (lateral epicondylitis and medial epicondylitis in both arms) trying to play Tender Surrender’s solo for hours I have to resign.