The Z Files

Monday saw the return to Buffalo of one of the greatest guitarists in rock, but with a new twist. Steve Vai put his usual touring band, The Breed, on hiatus and formed the new String Theories Band. Because this tour is in support of the live orchestral Sound Theories album, Vai took this opportunity to go in a different direction, adding violinists Alex DePue and Ann Marie Calhoun to the band, along with new bassist Bryan Beller and Breed holdovers Dave Weiner (second guitar) and Jeremy Colson (drums). As usual, I had avoided all news about the tour. I knew nothing more than that Vai was touring with violinists. It made for some nice surprises.

The opening act was Zack Wiesinger. Normally, he plays a solo acoustic set. For this show, though, he was in band form with Guitar Zack and No Slack. He gave an interesting performance of quirky blues-based rock with side-splitting lyrics in the vein of Frank Zappa.

Vai was in fine form, tearing through nearly twenty compositions with his usual flair for the extravagant. This show seemed less self-indulgent than other Vai performances, which certainly had something to do with the new band. The violinists were an awesome addition, adding a new layer of sound and opening the door to new arrangements like in “For the Love of God,” which featured a violin intro similar to Tony MacAlpine’s keyboard intro from recent years.

The show had its unique moments, from the failure of Vai’s wireless unit that prompted him to actually stop the band midway through “Firewall,” through the Silly String assault on birthday boy Dave Weiner and a roadie who had the misfortune of sharing Dave’s birthday. I wasn’t going to try picking highlights because the entire show was at such a high level, but I was very happy to hear “Oooo,” “Firewall,” “Freak Show Excess” and “All About Eve.”

Vai showed on Monday that not only is he at the top of his game as a guitarist, but that his musicianship in general is better than ever. He’s truly one-of-a-kind, a fact cemented by his live show.

Photos (contrary to Vai policy, as I found out after the show) at Flickr, setlist after the jump.

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Dweezil Zappa had a gem of an idea to get a band together and go out and play a tribute to Frank’s music. The tour came to UB tonight. What a show! I wasn’t overly familiar with FZ’s music going into it, but I do enjoy his stuff. The show didn’t disappoint. The band, handpicked by Dweezil and including special guests Napoleon Murphy Brock, Terry Bozzio and Steve Vai, who played in various incarnations of Frank Zappa’s band, was absolutely great. They played for about 3:30, breaking only before the encore. Dweezil was quite obviously getting off on conducting the band (and the audience) as his father used to do. His guitar work was impressive. Of course, he can’t match Vai, but he’s a very good player. Bozzio came on about halfway through the set. Vai came out a couple songs later and played one or two with Bozzio before Bozzio departed. Vai stayed on stage for a couple more songs before leaving the ZPZ band to finish the set. Both Bozzio and Vai returned for the encore. Multiple (very impressive) extended solos were taken by both. It was quite apparent that all the musicians were having a great time, and that made the show even more enjoyable.

Needless to say, I’ll be getting into Frank’s stuff more now. I really hope that they do a DVD from this tour. I took a bunch of pics at the show tonight and will post them once I have a chance to crunch them down.