With all the confidence and swagger of a true rock and roll legend, Steve Vai burst onto the Center for the Arts main stage Monday night at UB, bringing his "Theories of Sound '07" tour through Amherst.
The evening began with a dark stage and a crescendo of sound that made sure everybody in the audience was on the edge of their seat with anticipation.
The crowd went absolutely wild as the guitar wizard walked onstage sporting a glowing green guitar and looking like something out of a drug-induced hallucination.
Vai managed to maintain the energy emitted by the crowd for the entire show. With his furiously fast and precise guitar playing and his uncommonly masterful use of note stretching and pitch bending, Vai's performance was unlike anything that has graced the CFA.
Classifying Steve Vai's style is incredibly difficult; while he is in the very least a rock and roll guitarist, his music draws from many different sources, including funk, ethnic and new age, making his sound extremely eclectic and complex, and paralleled by nearly none.
While Vai's guitar playing was certainly the most brilliant component of the set, his other band members shined as well, particularly violinists Anne Marie Calhoun and Alex DePue. Their superb playing complimented Vai's ax work and gave the performance a fully orchestrated sound.
Aside from the sheer power of his musical performance, Vai engaged the crowd in other ways, as well.
At one point, drummer Jeremy Colson got down off of his kit and strapped on an strange-looking invention of his own: a portable drum set. He looked ridiculous and knew it, and he and Vai accordingly joked back and forth.
They got the crowd laughing, and the whole affair was like something out of a comedy event - a tone many artists today would feel is beneath them. But the gag's light-heartedness mixed with Vai's undeniable skill certainly worked and made the performance memorable.
Via's enthusiasm for being able to play on a college campus was made well known, and he further presented himself as a very down-to-earth and likeable person.
After the main set finished, the crowd's energy reached its peak. Seeing a standing ovation had become commonplace at this point, as the crowd gave one after every of Vai's solos, but this last time it was immense. In response, the band came back out, and finished with four more songs.
Openers Zack Wiesinger and his band Guitar Zack and No Slack also impressed.
Zack performed astoundingly well and really got the crowd going with his blues inspired jam-band style grooving. It was inspiring seeing this 20-year-old musician open for a musician as established and experienced as Steve Vai.
Afterwards, Vai spent a good deal of time passing out guitar picks and shaking hands. He truly loved being there just as much as the audience did.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
