G3 - Joe Satriani / Steve Vai / Robert Fripp
29 June 2004
Royal Albert Hall, London

I`d been considering skipping reviewing this gig for a few reasons. Firstly we were not granted a photo pass. Apparently the Royal Albert Hall only grants photo passes to the "national press" given there`s no pit for the photographers. Having seen the photographers only allowed to crawl along the front of the low stage during the G3 jam, I perfectly respect this. Though whoever the one with the short blonde hair was who kept just standing at the front should be banned as he was blocking a lot of people`s views.

Still on photos, as the tickets said no cameras we didn`t bother taking little ones either. Whilst in the bar repeatedly there was announcement that cameras were forbidden, but when Steve Vai came on there were flashes going off all round the Hall. The problem with doing this in an all seated venue though is it makes it very easy to identify who`s taking pictures and there was indeed a team of spotters and confiscators working the Hall.

There are however some great pictures of the Stokholm gig on the ArtGraphics site.

The other thought not to review this was, how do I review it? There was a wealth of immense talent on stage through the evening and simply they were all amazing. Anyway, I`ve started giving my thoughts so I may as well continue.

I`d never been to the Royal Albert Hall before and although I don`t think it makes a good venue for a rock gig, it`s certainly impressive. We had no queue to get in, easily got a beer, though couldn`t take it in the hall, and had a great view from our swivelling seats in the stalls.

I`d read a lot of comments about Robert Fripp`s G3 set which seemed to fall in either the love it or hate it categories. It`s not ideal to prejudge things, but I had a feeling I`d fall in the latter and I was right. We didn`t hang about for long, but Fripp appeared to be creating soundscapes on his guitar, similar to the music they play in "new age" shops. The back drop had trippy projections on it and I was expecting whale noises to accompany them. Fripp was practically sat off stage also which seemed a bit odd and you could tell from a few places you wouldn`t have been able to see him at all for the amps. Not my thing at all.

Outside of him being in a band I`d seen Steve Vai once before, ha-ha, I`m on the Live At The Astoria DVD! A friend had been really keen to go see him and after initially being wary of a night of guitar histrionics I was amazed at how entertaining he was. Tonight Vai walked out on to the stage as soon as Robert Fripp finished, collecting his tripled neck guitar. Vai sat on a chair stage front and proceeded to play I Know You`re Here on this beast of a guitar. Whilst his playing was amazing it was a rather odd opening and felt a bit like a guitar clinic, though perhaps geared to bridge from Robert Fripp.

The band joined Vai for Giant Balls Of Gold which featured Steve singing. I was a bit disappointed by this as I`d read due to Steve having laryngitis at recent gigs they`d played Shy Boy with Billy Sheehan on vocals from their David Lee Roth days. Anyway, the playing was awesome, though the sound was not good at all. The drums appeared to be bouncing off the back wall and generally for all the faster material the sound blended together. At the end of this song Vai started throwing his guitar around whilst still playing the solo and then picked harmonics by licking the guitar.

Steve joked "nice dump you have here", before going on to say that playing at the Albert Hall could be the highlight of his career.

Vai has an amazing band with him. Drummer Jeremy Colson did battle with Vai at one point, playing one handed fills with one drum stick in his mouth whilst Vai mimicked them on the guitar. Meanwhile Dave Weiner is more than a talented guitarist in his own right and Vai plugged his solo cd on introducing us to him.

The Juice saw the band trimmed to a three piece with the action centred on Vai and bass god Billy Sheehan. To my mind Sheehan is the best bass player in the world and his speedy soloing and tapping was astounding to watch, but just a shame he was battling with a muddy sound.

Last, but by no means least Tony McAlpine, who had been providing keyboards as well as guitar had his moment in the spotlight for Bangkok, featuring a guitar dual with Vai.

It was the slower material that came over better however with the majestic Whispering A Prayer and closing For The Love Of God, which received the biggest cheer of the night, the pick of the set.

Guess at Steve Vai`s set list:
I Know You`re Here / Giant Balls Of Gold / Answers / The Reaper / Juice / Whispering A Prayer / Get The Hell Outta Here / Bangkok / For The Love Of God

After a short intermission it was Joe Satriani`s turn to entertain us. Whilst Vai is more flamboyant on stage Satriani is more the centre of attention with his band. Again there are some talented individuals backing him, but the emphasis is more on Satriani`s playing. This also meant that the sound was a lot better for his set, though still not as good as I would have expected.

Straight away Satriani was working the whole stage bounding around with a big grin on his face. It has to be said though, if you saw somebody walking round with the bizarre hat and bright red sunglasses Satriani was wearing, you`d probably think nutter and cross the road.

Satch Boogie featured early in the set and was one of the evening`s highlights. In fact with both guitarists I seemed to be getting into the songs I`d heard before. Probably partly because I could work out what they were playing despite the bad sound and also as I could recognise that these were written pieces rather than mindless guitar wanking.

Joe took the mic for I Like The Rain, which added a nice break from all the instrumentals. Then he told us he`d been shocked to read in the local paper that he was a "long-haired" guitarist, and as a result he promised us some long-haired rock with Up In Flames. This featured atmospheric red lighting and flames projected on the screen behind him.

As for Vai, it was again the slower material that really shone through and Always With Me, Always With You was probably the best song all evening. Joe`s guitar tone was just so rich for this song.

War from The Extremist album was another song I was familiar with and had me nodding along. Finally an amazing version of Flying In A Blue Dream finished Satriani`s set and featured Galen Henson strumming along on a mounted guitar which sounded almost like a sitar.

Guess at Joe Satriani`s set list:
Hands In The Air / Satch Boogie / Cool #9 / Gnaahh / I Like The Rain / Up In Flames / Always With Me, Always With You / Searching / Is There Love In Space / War / Flying In A Blue Dream

It was time for the G3 Jam next, though I suddenly realised that the last three songs of Satriani had been a G2 experience, suddenly spotting Robert Fripp sat on his stool in the dark at the back of the stage.

Given that the sets were running late the G3 jam was cut down to just three songs. Satriani`s Ice 9 from Surfing With The Alien was first, with all three guitarists, even Fripp to our surprise, shredding speedy solos.

Next was a homage to Robert Fripp with a run through of Red by King Crimson. I hadn`t heard any King Crimson before and on this evidence I should definitely check some out as this was another highlight of the evening. I`d often read Voivod were influenced by King Crimson and that made perfect sense to me on hearing the odd chords of this song.

Finally Rocking In The Free World with Satriani and Vai singing finished the set. I find it odd that these two choose to play this song as the original has a very loosely played guitar vibe and doesn`t seem to sit with either`s style. I`m not a big fan of this song and knowing it was the last song we chose to make a hasty exit, given their was a tube strike to contend with.

G3 Jam set list:
Ice 9 / Red / Rocking In The Free World