Yngwie was pretty much acting like an a** (surprise, surprise). He flung his guitar round and round, pouted and posed like a "real" rocker, flung his hair about like a Clairol model, and made "mean face" at the appropriate times. During his set I kept waiting for the 18" Stonehendge to come down with the little dwarfs. I've seen him a number of times and this was by far the worst I'd seen. Having said all that, he still rips. The guy can play! So it was still cool to see a shredding relic unleash the fury. Also, when he actually settled in and listened to his bandmates (rather than snarl at them) and played some Hendrix he was really good.
On the other hand, Steve Vai was magical. There is no other way to say it. That was the single most inspired performance I have ever seen of any kind. He was "on" that night in a way I have never seen before by anyone. It wasn't just flurries of notes (although there were plenty of them). He was fired up. The note choices, the articulation, the creativity, and the passion were all there. He really gets into his playing (or as my buddy said "he contorts himself into every note"). He was gracious to the audience and his band. We were treated to new songs which was totally cool. This was simply an unbelievable performance.
Satch came out and kicked butt. He played a bunch of his crowd pleasers. He pulled out a previously unreleased tune that was really cool with a really nifty hammer-on part that is sort of hard to describe that sounded really cool. He too was a gracious performer. Joe is always cool - and why not, he kicks butt and has fun doing it.
Then came the big finale. Satch sang "Keep on rockin' in the free world", Steve sang "Little Wing", Yngwie sang "Voodoo Chile", and Billy Sheehan (who was playing bass for Vai) came out at the very end and sang "La Grange". Joe and Steve play great together and obviously have a lot of mutual respect for each other. On the other hand, Yngwie definitely does not play nice with others. He played over Joe and Steve while they were singing and during their solo breaks. It was two pros and a clown. Yngwie flipped his guitar around and nearly hit Billy Sheehan. I wanted to see Billy kick his butt, instead Billy started mocking Yngwie by swinging his bass around like a maniac.
There is supposedly a DVD in the works for the tour - that will be a must.
