So I made it to the front doors of The Trocadero at 8:45pm as instructed by Quinn … He got stuck in traffic on 76, so he didn’t make it … While I was standing there, I saw people going up to the door and turned away … it was sold out … So they finally get there, and we go into the will call booth and get the tickets and passes … Vai had already started, so we missed the opener Eric Sardinas … Standing outside I could hear that it was Vai type music and I did notice on a sign that the doors had opened at 7pm …
It was packed … so into the first floor on the main level there wasn’t really anywhere to go … I could see Vai through people’s heads and things … Quinn suggested going upstairs, so we go up there and get beverages and there still is nowhere to really park ourselves … Looking down, the ceiling was in the way, so you could see his guitar, but not his face … (Sisters) We finally end up sitting on some steps going down an aisle, and shortly after a guy came down and said everyone on the lefthand side of the steps had to move … We were on the lefthand side … The keyboardist went into a solo, so we go downstairs and hang a little on the right side in the back … It was possible to see, but heads would move, then you would have to move … then Billy Sheehan goes into a bass solo and we head back upstairs for another beverage and a smoke (Liberty) … Back downstairs again we go to the right again but stay towards the middle … We were sorta near the sound board, I could see the snakes coming down …
Vai finishes, but you know he’s going to play an encore … My Guitar Wants to Kill your MaMa … Vai brings Eric Sardinas on stage with him to do this one … The keyboardist plays guitar, so there’s 3 guitars on stage … They all switch off on leads … The keyboard player was a very good guitar player as well … At the completion of this, Vai asks if it’s okay if he can do one more … For the Love of God … It was beautiful … the end was extended with a nice low pedaltone and him going off making the guitar sing all sorts of notes … While kneeling and holding the guitar from the bar, he sang to the right and got a crowd response, a little higher to the right and a crowd response … Just when you thought the guitar couldn’t go any higher, he sang to the middle and the place errupted … I believe this is where he stood and held the guitar flat by the bar (Crossroads style) and push it up with his left hand switching to just holding it by a finger and then letting it go … From what I saw of it, it was a great show … seeing a bunch of musicians, the master of their instruments having a good time playing Vai’s songs …
So that was the visual … The sound is another story … and not that I am a sound guy that has a complaint, there were others saying the same things, so I’m not crazy … First of all, it wasn’t very loud … When we were upstairs, we could barely hear his acoustic … When he spoke, there was no roundness to the sound … It sounded like the vocal came out of nothing but the horns … It fed back too, so maybe the house guy was trying to push it as hard as he could … Afterward, someone commented that it could have been something as simple as a bad cord, but this sound persisted throughout the show … No one attempted to change it or fix it … at least not that I noticed … Vai’s electric sounded very clear … (Maybe it was stage volume?) … but it sounded very clear and precise much like his CDs … The house guy was very fader heavy … When the guitars switch around solos, you heard the faders being changed … at times, very late … The house guy did not have a feel for the music or the musicians … so maybe it wasn’t Vai’s regular guy … (I have been complimented many times for my ability to mix bands that I’ve never seen before or have heard their original music, it’s just a feel, so maybe everyone doesn’t have this?) … From all the dates that Vai played prior to this show, I would think the guy mixing should have a feel for the show at this point … he didn’t … I’m sure most sound guys feel this way, but I could have mixed the show better … For example, when Eric Sardinas was on stage, I don’t think he was ever turned up except for his solo … Come to think of it, it sounded as though he had one mix that he kept, everything low except Vai’s guitar … When he had to go away from this, the mix got lost …
Anyway, so after the show we hang around (because we have wristbands) so we can wait for Steve Vai to come out and do whatever he does … This is called the “meet and greet” … It took a while, but eventually he did come out … I had thought to myself, does he even shake hands? Most people don’t want to shake hands because there are so many germs flying around … He would certainly be sick his entire tour shaking hands at every venue he went and played … So that was the first thing I noticed … He was wearing gloves … Good idea! There were people posing for pictures, and I wondered how they got cameras in … I left mine in the car … I did have my camera phone though … I had plenty of time to think of what I would say to the guy, but he took too long with everyone and they were eventually asking people to leave … But we hadn’t “met” him yet, so we weren’t going to just leave … I was with someone who indirectly worked with Steve Vai, so there was a sort of purpose of why we were there … For me, I hadn’t even planned on going to the show, so this was much closer to Steve Vai than I had actually thought I would have been ever anyway … So he announces to the remaining people that he’s sorry that he has to go, and starts making his way to the backstage area from where he came … A couple people stopped him to take pictures, and this is where I tried to get a shot with my camera phone … Camera phones suck in low light …
So as he makes his way back to the backstage area, we go with him … Another stop right before the backstage door, and another picture is taken by a photographer guy … Then, for whatever reason, we follow him through the door and go upstairs to the back of the Troc … following through skinny hallways … Vai stops in this room back there and we hang in the hallway … Then he makes his way to a room at the end of the hall, and the 3 of us go in there … Vai sits in an easy chair and the girl we came with sits in another … Quinn and I just stand there … They are talking business … I am sorta just staring at Vai, but I look at the girl while she speaks, etc … Sorta uncomfortable … I mean at this point, I’m not going to take out my camera phone and try to take pictures … I’m not going to interrupt them and ask Vai to sign my ticket or something … So my knees start shaking a little bit and I decide to sit on the armchair of the couch I’m standing in front of … There’s a fridge in this room that some guys are emptying out, there’s pizza boxes … used sandwiches … wine … obviously a private bathroom … So they’re talking about this business stuff … and eventually she introduces the guy with the beard … and he in turn introduces me … I stand to shake Steve Vai’s hand (still gloved) … I guess I nodded as well … I said nothing … Star struck … in a place where I thought it inappropriate to go fan … After all, she was conducting business, and we were just hanging … In a room backstage after the Trocadero show … So, I don’t need anything signed, I don’t need a picture of him with my ugly mug next to his … I simply have this experience … I’ve seen Steve Vai hanging out and talking with people and he didn’t have a guitar in his hand the whole time … Would probably be hard to play with gloves on … Well, maybe not for Steve Vai …