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Steve Vai - Live at the Astoria London

Steve Vai - Live at the Astoria London

List Price: $19.98
Your Price: $15.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This is close to perfect!
Review: I loved this DVD!! As for the review here from the guy who thought he was buying a guitar instructional video, yes I would like to see more full guitar shots but this is not anywhere near as bad as he put it!!!!!!!!! Again he must have thought he was getting an instructional video! The song choices were cool enough and the extras rocked too! It sounds nice and live and loud! Do yourself a favor and get this to put right next to your Satch and Dream Theater DVDS.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Nice job Mr. Vai.......
Review: OK, the production is not as good as the Satriani's DVD, but if you want to see great musicians (it`s not only Steve show), you must buy this one. Good solos from all of them (Donati and McAlpine are really outstanding).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Well worth the time and $
Review: Bottom Line: Buy DVD and enjoy. Can't think of many other better ways of spending my time or $.

Saxophone - John Coltrane; Basketball - Michael Jordan; Slide guitar - Duane Allman; Fretted guitar - Steve Vai. My point is that Steve is arguably one of the best guitarists of all-time. Although Steve Vai might NOT be better than Hendrix, or Stevie Ray Vaughan, or Andres Segovia, or Charlie Christian. I strongly doubt that the aforementioned guitarists are better than Steve.

Similar to the people (not just guitarists) that I've mentioned, Steve has the technical skills & passion for his art. Equally important is his quest to explore.

In closing, Steve is a wonderful human being, an honest and imaginative musician, and a FREAKING ANIMAL (that is, he's both a freak and an animal....)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: AWESOME
Review: What more can I say? Steve Vai on guitar, Billy Sheehan on bass, Virgil Donati on drums, Tony MacAlpine on guitar/keyboards and you've got some of the best musicians to ever pick up an instrument plus solos galore! If you're a fan of guitar or instrumental music this is highly recommended. BTW this was released on 12/09/03.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Hey Kids! It's The Steve & Billy Show!!
Review: Not to diminish the rest of the band who play beyond human ability but Steve Vai & Billy Sheehan has the on-stage charisma that today's MTV pop stars would sell their souls for (that is the label doesn't already own their souls).

This DVD is THE best concert DVD I have ever seen. I find most concert DVD's to be kind of boring. Especially of this guitar virtusos genre. It takes so much talent and concentration to pay this type of difficult guitar music; one has to limit his stage antics so as to not screw up. Ever see Pat Metheny or King Crimson do anything other than stand in one place and play a song that involved 5 different time signatures, 3 different keys for a duration more than 10 minutes?

What I really enjoyed was Steve allowing the rest of the band to show off their chops. There is a temptation for the front man to steal the spotlight. Here, Steve shares the show with each individual member. Though Steve's stage antics are rather silly and over the top and I could have done without Tony MacAlpine's dreadful keyboard solo. Why not let him solo on guitar? One other item - sorry Steve but you cannot play blues. I love ya and you are incredible but blues is not your specialty.

I've seen Steve three times, twice solo and once with Zappa (back when he was in his early twenties) and have always left his concerts with the feeling that I've seen the best. This DVD captures the intensity, excitement and musicianship of a Steve Vai show. If you're friends shake their heads when you go on about Steve Vai, let them see this DVD and they will know why he is the top man of the rock guitar virtuoso genre. They may not become a rabid Vai fan, but they will see why Steve Vai is able to make a living without the aid of MTV, radio play or slick commercialism and marketing - which is a tough thing to do these days.

His guitar, his music and his writing speaks for itself.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: HUGE disappointment
Review: Ok, just to set the record straigth: I love Steve Vai, I think he's an amazing musician, just saw him at the G3, wonderful showman... just love the guy. That being said, I am sorry to tell that this is probably one of the worst live DVDs I ever seen in my life! I had great expectations for this DVD. Maybe too much! I have been eagerly waiting for it to come out for the last 2 months and when I got it yesterday I could not wait to put it in the player: my enthusiam went down as fast as Steve can play and my anger grew as big as his technic... Where... did they get these cameramen?! This is a DVD for people who love the guitar and cannot wait to see the maestro perfom and admire his technic... Well nothing of that in this DVD. I have never seen something as badly and poorly shot as this video. The guy seems not to be able to focus on Steve's hands (when you actually get to see both of them, which is rare), or gives close ups that are so close that the only thing you get to see his the back of Steve right hand, that is completely blocking the view of Steve's right hand. You get to see huge close-ups of Steve's face, flying hair, back, bottom of his guitar, sometimes you don't have anybody in the shot at all, sometimes you have special FX like in a video clip... I gave it 35mn before I could not stand it anymore and just stop watching... too painful and frustrating... I will probably never watch that thing again (let me know if you want it, I'll put it on ebay) and will only use it to record a live of Steve on my MiniDisc. I am actually thinking of sending it back to Favoured Nations altogether. Don't care about the $18. I just feel like I have been cheated. If you really like Steve, just don't buy this stuff. Go get Satch Live in San Francisco, now THAT's a DVD for guitar lovers!! Well that's it for me. Going back to pratice my chords and scales.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Vai brings the house down...
Review: This was the first time I'd ever seen Steve Vai in concert, and I was thoroughly impressed. As many know, this man is one of the best, and his performance here just solidifies his "rock god" status. The performance is completely exhausting, but in a good way. It's just one relentless guitar riff after another, neverending solos, and nonstop energy.

There are a lot of complaints about the visual aspect of this DVD. Yes, the camerawork is far from "professional," but it seemed more than appropriate for this type of concert. Yes, Steve Vai is a bit silly in his stage antics. But to say he's childish and needs to grow up in order to be respected as a musician? His guitar playing, what he's paid to do, is far from childish, my friend. This is Steve Vai being Steve Vai, and if you want to see Joe Satriani, watch him instead.

If you're going to be put off easily by the visuals of a music DVD, I might advise not getting it. Personally, I didn't even notice anything was "wrong," because I was enjoying the show too much. For the price and the healthy amount of interesting extras on this 2 disc DVD, I would HIGHLY recommend this purchase to anyone who wants to see a master at work.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Crushing disappointment
Review: I bought this DVD in consolation of not being able to afford his forthcoming live tour 'downunder', which makes this review even more keenly felt.
I agree with all the reviews about the video editing!
Tragic- i don't know if i can ever watch this DVD again.
I have ALL Vai's CD's and a G3 VHS but this one leaves me cold.
I commend Vai's attempts at presenting an entertaining show but i'm surprised that the music has even left me nonchalant.
For the first time ever i thought i was watching a gratuitous display of 'chops'.Maybe the visuals put me in a less receptive mood.
Surely he didn't watch this before it was released.
Mr. Vai can do MUCH better than this.
Crushed.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: High Priest or Dark Lord
Review: There's definitely a battle going on in this man: ego and spirit, both in full dragon-bloom, seem to be twisting and tormenting and writhing deep within. Sometimes his beaming countenance seems incongruous with the wickedness of his delivery, and other times his playing raises goose-bumps, which means he's touching deep places, places where only spirits are allowed. Which will win remains to be heard. But after watching this DVD, I think Vai is actually very restrained. The ecstasy with which he plays belongs high atop an enormous cultic pyramid during some mass sacrificial ritual, replete with slick red stairs and hooded priests reaping hearts, lightning flashes, blinding tempests, and the swirling souls of the recently taken faithful passing into and out of Master Vai. But, alas, this is the 21st century, with legitimate authorities and little breathing room for radical mystics. What do these quick thoughts have to do with his DVD? For me, everything. This DVD is only a concert because concerts are the only legal venue for this man. He's surpassed the guitar. It's an excuse. He doesn't play it; he possesses it, or it him. Flo is like Stormbringer and Vai is Elric. (See Moorcock's Elric of Melnibone.) I've always liked Vai, since I first discovered the floppy record of the Attitude Song in a guitar magazine in the 1980's. And I still do. He's just not a guitar player anymore. The world needs more Vais. I'm interested in finding out what happens, so I'll be waiting for the next addition, but I'm not going anywhere near that pyramid.

OR.... he's playing around: a little Tinsel Town rebellion, Vai style. But enough pyschocinematic analysis. Steve Vai is an amazing musician, and even though much of what he does couldn't be done on Stevie Ray Vaughan's guitar, I'm thoroughly impressed. I'm sure Vai could make SRV's guitar do some pretty fantastic stuff, but why should he? He's Vai not Vaughan: so if he wants to play ultra-light strings on a guitar with virtually no neck relief, then the more power to him.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: mr vai
Review: im seen a lot of guitarist video but this live at astoria totally
kick ass coz got lesson to musician like me.


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