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Thread: Steve Vai - Grand Rapids Michigan Last Night

  1. #1
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    Steve Vai - Grand Rapids Michigan Last Night

    Saw Steve Vai for the first time last night at The Intersection in Grand Rapids Michigan. It was a fantastic show and I was really impressed. It was advertized as Steve Vai with special guest, so I assumed there would be an opening act. I got to the club about 8:10PM and Vai was already on stage, so I assume he must have come on at 8. He played until close to 11PM with no Intermission, so it was a long show, but very entertaining. I was kind of afraid that it was going to be a guitar wank fest that might grow old after a while, but Vai infused a lot of variety into his act and it never got boring. Of course his band was all top of the line musicians as well and they each got to show off in solo spots. I am not an expert on Vai’s catalogue so could not really give you a set list, but he did quite a few things that I recognized (“The Audience Is Listening”, “Ultra Zone” “For The Love Of God”) and several tunes from his most recent album. At least some of what he does I would consider progressive rock, but he is really all over the place musically. He has great stage presence and comes across as a genuinely nice guy and funny as well. At one point he accidentally addressed the town as being Cedar Rapids instead of Grand Rapids, and his band good naturedly gave him shit about it the rest of the night. At another point, after Vai did a vocal acoustic number, the drummer came out and made a bunch of cracks about Vai “putting the audience to sleep with that boring ballad shit”. It was pretty funny. The Intersection is a really nice club with a big stage and great sightlines. My guess would be that it holds somewhere between 800 to 1000 people and it seemed pretty full, although they never sell to the point of being wall to wall people like some clubs do. Anyway, it was a great night and I would definitely go see him again.

    Steve Sly

  2. #2
    ALL ACCESS Gruno's Avatar
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    Glad you had fun at the show! My friend is Vai's tour manager and shot this when he got to the venue:



    How is the sound at this venue?

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gruno View Post
    Glad you had fun at the show! My friend is Vai's tour manager and shot this when he got to the venue:



    How is the sound at this venue?
    Yup, that is the place. They had chairs set up in the first half of the venue (which is unusual) and I just had a general admission ticket so was behind all the chairs with the standing people. Regarding the sound, to be honest I thought it could have been a little bit louder, but overall it sounded quite good. It is probably my favorite club in Southwest Michigan to see shows at. As I mentioned before it has great sightlines, great P.A. and killer Michigan Microbrews at small city prices. It also has a big enough stage that bands can bring in fairly decent size productions. It is about a 45 minute drive for me, but very convenient to get to. I don’t remember Vai ever playing our area before (at least as a solo performer). Hopefully he drew well enough to come back around next time.

    Steve Sly

  4. #4
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    Here is a pretty good video someone shot from the show last night:



    Steve Sly

  5. #5
    Steve is one I would love to see at some point.. I saw Joe Satriani in his early years in a small venue.. still ranks up there as one of the best shows.. no glamor.. just full on R&Roll for a couple hours... I have one DVD of Via.. with an orchestra I believe... great video..
    Last edited by happytheman; 11-09-2013 at 07:29 AM.

  6. #6
    So, who was the special guest?
    "The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by ronmac View Post
    So, who was the special guest?
    No one that I know of.

    Steve Sly

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by SteveSly View Post
    No one that I know of.

    Steve Sly
    Maybe it was you.
    "The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"

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