Rating: 
Summary: Music = A+, Visuals = D
Review: I was so excited to see this DVD... what guitar enthusiast could pass up 2+ hours of Steve Vai? I've heard him live, heard him with other artists, heard him by himself, and was amped to hear and see him in my very own home.The music was simply wonderful, a good variety of songs were chosen, and Vai's energy really comes through to the viewer. However, I have to mention the nauseating overkill of visual effects used.
As a one-time film/video production student, I learned one thing you NEVER do is mess with the stock footage. But consistently throughout the DVD you see weird angles, lightning fast zooms, and oh the spinning...
Then there's the post-production debacle. First of all, it is a bad idea to change subject size or shooting angle so drastically. It was hard to keep up with what I was watching. Next, star wipes, swirl wipes, etc. are best left for high school video classes.
Granted, these effects and transitions were often proportional to the tempo and energy of the music at that time, but were very distracting nonetheless.
If the seizure-inducing distractions from the editing and footage were toned down or eliminated, I would have given this five stars. As it is, I could not in good conscience recommend this to anyone without a thorough warning. Mr. Vai, please keep doing what you do best... and let the camera operators and editors do what they do best.
Rating: 
Summary: Great For A Serious Music Fan
Review: This is a great expo of Steve Vai and his incredible talent. I've watched this DVD over and over and love it. His playing in incredible. His stage antics are fun, entertaining and moving (you can see he's been influenced by Zappa, DLR and knows how to perform visually). It truly shows off Steve Vai's talent and personality. I was recently at a Guitar Play Magazine party for their advertisers hosted by Steve Vai and truly think he's not only an incredible guitarist but simply radiates life and music. The DVD itself leaves you in awe. Steve is incredible on his studio recordings but you think: "how is he going to pull this off live"? Well, he does perfectly. It is like watching Michael Jordan in his prime. Musically, he does a tremendous job of weaving very interesting melodies and layers of sound together. It is not just fast paying here. There are great dynamics at work in his compositions. The guitar is simply his vehicle for creating music. He's not held back at all by the guitar but effortlessly can make any sound he imagines. Steve's music isn't for everyone. My wife just doesn't get it. It is very complex and takes a truly serious music fan to appreciate. If you're music tastes are limited to the pop flavor of the week, you may not like Vai. If you have an open minded and are looking for something musically on the level of John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Frank Zappa, Beethoven or Bach, then Vai will blow you away.
Rating:
Summary: Best show ever
Review: I have all his albums and have several video's with his performance. But this is really something else. I have never seen and heard him play like this before. Very good!! This DVD includes new songs of Steve. Next to this it has a high quality both on sound and vision. I can recommend this dvd to all those who love his music.
Rating: 
Summary: So dissapointing
Review: I have been a Steve Vai fan since 1986, have all his CD's, seen him in concert, etc., etc.. I eagerly anticipated this DVD, when I got it, I literally wanted to stop it after the 3rd song. There are a lot of comments here about the bad camera work..the comments are more than correct, the camera work is horrible, the editing is just as bad. The editor uses the effects package like a high school sophmore editing his first project..REALLY cheesy video transitions. The 2nd DVD is a complete waste of time that I will never get back. Nothing worth watching at all. Having said all this, any Vai fan will love the music, that goes without saying. Whoever was responsible should have hired a professional video company to shoot and edit this. It really is a disaster, I will never watch it again. Best thing is to rip the audio to a CD and listen to it without the horrible camera work. My only hope is that Vai tries this again on his next tour with a real camera crew, and a real editor. A great DVD of Steve and band in action would be a great thing, but not this one.
Rating: 
Summary: entertaining piece of work!!!
Review: This concert DVD is pretty good, despite of all the short comings mentioned by previous reviews, I personally find it entertaining.
I am not a huge Vai's fan, but a great guitar fan though. I have known about his music since the 80's, and never really follow his music so I cannot comment on what's best and worst.
A concert is a concert, and its entertainment, and I guess he has the rock n' roll and the blues in him to play and act like he does and all of you can just stop being so picky. Dude, some of you cannot just expect the camera to be 100% on the fretboard, come on...that's sad. I think some of the people who bought this DVD expect features like a blockbuster movie...constant multi-angles, zoom-in, and incrediable CGI and stuff like that....lol.
All and all, Great bunch of musician, and you guys who does not know who Eric Sardinas is, should start paying attention...he's great too. If you like guitars and are fans of Steve, and like watching concert footage, go ahead and buy this DVD! By the way, I do not know if anyone experience the same thing I have, on track 14...there is a glitch, no mark on the DVD, but the picture and sound just froze for a split second and return to normal...??
Rating:
Summary: Finally, a Steve Vai DVD...
Review: A perfect back-to-back with the recent (excellent) G3 tour.
The quality of production is Excellent. I only found annoying the camera movements (sometimes excesive). But the image and sound are perfect.
The concert is beyond every expectation, Vai teams-up with old time's friend and ally Billy Sheehan (they even play "Chameleon" from sheehans latest solo album); Tony MacAlpine, an excellent musician many times unseen; Vai's protege' Dave Weiner and Virgil Donati on the Drums. Vai-Mac-Dave could make a G3 by themselves a G3....WOW
With over 2.5 hours of live concert, and more that 1 hour of Special features, this 2-DVD is a MUST for all Vai fans, and a great oportunity for the newbies to meet some fine guitar (hard to find this days). Also check The Infinite Steve Vai: Antologies (CD) . And don't miss Joe Satriani's latests: Satch Tape (old news DVD) and the Antologies. www.vai.com www.billysheehan.com www.tonymacalpine.com www.daveweiner.com www.virgildonati.com www.satriani.com
Rating:
Summary: VAI is AMAZN!!!!
Review: I used to rate vai OK types. I am a die hard fan of JOE, ERIC Johnson, Petrucci etc...This DVD is just amazing, VAI Got boost in his performace with Billy Shean, besides now he is playing some melodious tunes...Whispering a prayer is just awesome!!!
I will recommend GUITAR GUYS AS A MUST BUY!! for rest of folks recommended buy!!! VAI's MUSIC is ENCHANTING!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Incredible, whatever these chumps say!
Review: Steve Vai is simply the best guitarist alive today.
The main reason I'm writing this review is as a retort to some of the comments already up as 'reviews'. Firstly, if you don't like Vai, why would you buy the DVD?
If you think Vai is a talentless bum, you're not going to enjoy this product - just go and check out the Britney DVD's, I'm sure they're more your style. Now, while the camera work and special effects aren't the best thing about the DVD, it's just stupid to suggest that a Vai fan should not buy this just because of them! Surely that's like saying "Passion & Warfare" is incredibly good, but the album cover is crap so don't bother ... Steve's costume changes and his on stage antics are by way of entertainment. What would you prefer? Steve just playing the songs straight with no actual performance involved? No-one ever criticized Pink Floyd or Guns N Roses for putting on huge live shows with fireworks and blow up monsters... If you think you'll have trouble concentrating on the music because Steve has lights attached to his fingers for one song, just stick to the CD, OK? Overall, this DVD is an amazing example of brilliant music performed by talented artists who know how to put on a show and have a sense of humour. If you want to see Steve playing some of his best songs while the band and everyone in the crowd have an awesome time, this is the DVD for you! The camera angles can be a bit annoying - the cameramen get way too close to Steve's fingers sometimes and you can't see what he's playing at all. Also, during some solo's, the shots are from behind the drums, or of Billy or Dave.
Steve addresses the problems he had when editing the concert in the commentary track (which is great in itself!) If you like Vai, or even if you're just a guitar lover, get the DVD. You WON'T be disappointed!
Rating:
Summary: Great Vai Performance, Horrible Video Editing
Review: I'm loathe to write a "me too" review, but I felt my opinion might help drive home the important points. I agree with the comments given by Sarah Nelson and Tim Merriman. Those are good summaries. Vai's performance is awesome, but the video is highly annoying, especially for us guitar players. As others have mentioned, too often the video will cut to Steve's back (or some equally annoying shot) at the same moment Steve plays some riff that the guitar players want to see. They need to have a few guitar players in the editing booth. The video is too busy in any case, and the effects are excessive and annoying. Don't buy this DVD in order to catch your favorite riffs. It is likely that the shot will be of something else. The G3 Live in Denver is much more watchable. The basic stereo audio is good, I will give it that. (I cannot speak for the surround sound since I don't use it).
Rating: 
Summary: Crap.
Review: Whilst the musicianship is of a high standard as expected from Vai (well he has been playing long enough), the music itself is unexcitable and actually boring to listen to. Tony Macalpine has released some awesome material in the past and it is a shame they couldn't play a few of his tracks because they played a track off Billy Sheen's diabolical solo album. Steve Vai's costume changes and light effects were simply ridiculous and this new guitar prodigy Dave Weiner just sucked. The camera work is all over the place and it makes the concert as annoying as **** to follow. The additional material is plain stupid as they are basically messing around like kids and trying to be funny which doesn't work. So overall I wouldn't waste your money on this, unless you live in a cave and only know of Vai's guitar work, and nobody else because as far as I am concerned this shoddy package is just a load of crap.
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