Man with the magic fingers
Steve Vai stuns a Bangkok audience last week with his unique musical visions
Dressed in a black shirt and bright multi-coloured trousers, guitar virtuoso Steve Vai stepped out on to the stage of CentralWorld Live last week to thunderous applause from his many fans.
With no opening act on the bill, Vai lost no time in swinging into his set, opening with “Racing the World” and “Velorum” from his latest album, 2012’s “The Story of Light”, then cheerfully greeting the audience and introducing his band: drummer Jeremy Colson, bassist Philip Bynoe, rhythm guitarist Dave Weiner and 18-year-old keyboard whiz Michael Aarom.
Vai turned back the pages as he continued the show, playing “Building the Church” off 2008’s “Real Illusions: Reflections” and “Tender Surrender” from 1995’s “Alien Love Secrets”.
Vai, who was inspired to play guitar as a 13 year old after hearing Jimmy Page's solo on Led Zeppelin’s “Heartbreaker”, has released eight solo albums in an illustrious career that’s included spells with Graham Bonnet’s Alcatrazz and David Lee Roth’s post-Van Halen supergroup, The David Lee Roth band.
As Thai fans know from his earlier visits, he plays the guitar as if it were part of him, lurching around the stage in conjunction with a flurry of notes and riffs that sound like lawnmowers and jumbo jets. He returned to his latest album by punching out “Gravity Storm” and “Weeping China Doll” inviting his right-hand man, Dave Weiner, to perform the solo.
The influential guitar hero took the audience back to 1990’s eponymous “Passion and Warfare”, a solo outing recorded after a brief stint with Whitesnake and delighted the crowd with “The Animal”, “The Audience Is Listening”, “Sisters”, and “For the Love of God”.
After a short hiatus, Vai reappeared in his impressive Daft Punk LED cyber-suit and shot lasers from his fingers and fretboard as he shredded in “The Ultra Zone.”
Vai asked two members of the audience to help him writing a song on the spot before closing out the show with “Taurus Bulba” from 2009’s “Where the Wild Things Are.”
He didn’t make any promises about coming back to Bangkok but his fans, new and old, will be hoping he does – and soon.
