Steve Vai @ The Egyptian Room — Indianapolis on November 6th, 2013
It goes without saying that Steve Vai is a guitar god- It’s been that way essentially since the first time he picked up a six-string in 1973 and was shown the ropes of the instrument by Joe Satriani in 1974. Exactly four decades later, he is still on tour, and we were graced by his appearance in Indianapolis on November 6th… and let me tell you, after all these years, The Audience is Still Listening.
Thunder could be heard down Massachusetts avenue during my walk from the local Pub to the Murat Theatre, which was interesting since it wasn’t storming on that particular date. As I got closer to the entrance, the SPL was simply pounding from upstairs as I picked up my ticket and followed the crowd to the Egyptian Room. Once inside, my ears were treated to a backing track consisting of heavy bass guitar, rhythm guitar, punchy double-bass drums, and a man standing there alone, grinding away on lead guitar. Steve Vai did not have an official opener, so I later discovered that the man was Indianapolis’ Sam Ash Music Store winner for “Best In Shred”. Even though I never got his name, he was really good and went on to play for about twenty to thirty minutes as people started filing into the venue.
“Filing in” is putting it nicely. The place filled up not even to half capacity! It’s been a good long time since I’ve seen a show in the rather large Egyptian Room, but it’s been nicely remodeled in the meantime. The interior is gorgeous, moderately upscale as is the rest of the building. It has seating near the rear and on both sides, and other than that, the rest of the venue is standing space. As the lights went down, the room still had a lot of empty space so I perched directly in front of the soundboard, centered in the room right as Vai exploded right into his performance, no BS drone notes and without warning.
The band sounded PHENOMINAL in the Egyptian Room. Jeremy Colson was back there smashing away on the drum set, but his audio and volume was always tucked in the back of the mix, of course with Vai directly front and center. As with most of his music, it was a non-stop shred-fest with Vai and his accompanying guitarist Dave Wiener often playing call-and-response licks between him. But what got me most was the DYNAMICS of the whole thing. He came out and immediately melted your face with shrieking solos, but would taper down into fluid, melodic beauty in a slower (but just as energetic) songs. Then, right back to pandemonious 6 string shredding. During a quick break from the band, Dave strapped on an acoustic and performed one of his own. It made me think of Tim Reynolds and his lightning fast classical playing. Absolutely fantastic. Once the last note rang out, the rest of the band piled back onto the set and went right back into it.
I fully expected everyone to be going nuts and pumping their fists or jumping around in the venue, but they all just stood around with their arms crossed like wallflowers, staring directly ahead. The most eventful thing I saw were guys in their 40s’ holding ipads up in the air recording the performance (these people should feel ashamed of themselves) and one guy sat his empty aluminum beer bottle in front of my feet instead of in a trashcan. Like I said, it was quite an eventful crowd.
Steve Vai has no words in this set, as he lets his guitar do the talking. But during a few brief moments between songs, the guy is a comedian! It was quite entertaining. Humorous stories about previous shows, crowd experiences, old(er) age, etc. When he made a crack about Dave Wiener coming along on tour only to make himself (Vai) look good, it came off a little egotistical, but what can I say? He’s the man. And time has told this to be factual. Indy’s turnout didn’t make this show a sold-out experience, but it doesn’t matter. Steve Vai still delivered one hell of an experience tonight here at the Murat.
The Good: IT’S VAI! Do I need to say more? Okay, sure. Not a single position on the fretboards of Vai’s guitars went untouched. The show was wildly entertaining and Steve makes it known that he is still passionate after all these years of playing and touring. The audio engineers had the band dialed in perfectly, and made the most of the Egyptian Room. You could hear EVERYTHING. The light show was appealing and I really enjoyed the improvisational play between Steve and his other bandmates when he singled them out.
The Bad: The crowd was a bunch of zombies. Come on, Indy! The most action I saw came from people who were watching the concert through the screen of their smartphones! I really wish this wasn’t common practice at concerts. Look, the audio is gonna suck, and ultimately you’re missing the show. Turn off your device and WATCH THE SHOW FOR YOURSELF and then buy it on DVD when it’s released. Are you really going to show them to other people, let alone watch those poor quality videos again later? No. Stop it.