The G3 2004 Show. . . A K A Timbersports Inside The Beacon Theater

Well, well well… what can I say, Beacon Theater on November 10, 2003 definitely rocked with strange beautiful music… Yes, it was G3 live in concert, featuring Yngwie, Steve and Joe. Yngwie who? Yngwie J. fcuking Malmsteen, that’s who!!!

Satish and I arrived in NYC on Saturday afternoon, well in advance for the event. We each had our own plans for Sunday and went through the motions. Come, late Monday morning, we met at the NASDAQ market site on Times Square and were roaming NYC through late evening, including a quick stop at the Village.

7:10 p.m. saw us both outside the Beacon Theater waiting for Shanky (yeah Shanky) and Manu (one of Satish’ friends). Both arrived within minutes of each other and the Indian line-up of the Explorer’s Club was ready to roll.

The Beacon Theater on 74th and Broadway has a seating capacity of 12,000 and boasts a fantastic acoustic design, sound literally hitting you from all sides!!!

And enter the performers… First set was Yngwie J M, leading the pack with a smoke and lights show and some crafty guitar work. Gave the Beacon a weird Halloweeny effect that was quite the order of the season. He did play his usual tunes including Trilogy Suite, which I personally thought was bloody brilliant… the music just kept flowing and I was almost numb when the nine odd minute piece ended. His backing musician was a chappie called Tony McAlpine, keyboardist and guitars who performed just oh-so right to keep pace.

Y then went on to play some bizarre stuff including screeches, wa-waas and some arbit strumming, which almost ate my head off and made me wish for a strong dosage of Tylenol. He salvaged that one with a fugue for almost 15 minutes, the piece originally composed by Johann Sr himself – I later learnt from Satish that he played Bach’s Air on G String, Violin concerto in E Major, Jesu, Joy of Man’s desiring and the Brandenburg concerto – could recognize the first one and at least make out the tonal on the second but pieces 3 and 4 have me stumped. Reminded me a bit about ELP’s Trilogy album with the Endless Enigma, now that I think of it. Funnily enough he also kept throwing his guitar pick away every 5 minutes as well as changing guitars after every 10 minutes. The roadie sure had a tough time practicing catch. Y closed with his version of the American national anthem, hmmmm – patriotic, moi?

First break time and whisky and pop corn both keep your butt from freezing in the NY chill. We literally ran back inside to listen to Steve Vai. Two letters to describe him – F A (a.k.a fucking awesome). One number that I really liked and found out about later was “For the love of God” and “Juice”. Imagine a three stem guitar, each stem tuned to a different pitch, well man, that’s what he was playing for two tracks and he had Billy Sheehan paralleling him on bass, it was pure ecstasy to listen to that combo. At one point his guitar strings cut and he just continued through the riff without a fuss. He finished the piece and sort of joked about it, quite the cool cucumber, huh!! I liked his finishing line the most, the piece where he asked, “How am I doing now, Ma?”… given that he is from Little Italy, NYC. Ma sure wudja bin proud, Vai-man!!!

Last break of the evening only for the road crew to set up Joe Sat’s set and wow, the light show was amazing. Sat started off with the Satch Boogie and went on to Flying in a Blue Dream, one oldie favorite from the album of the same name. What was the mindfuck was his accompaniment – dig this, John Petrucci (Niki, I BS you not) – JP himself, who happened to be in NYC for the release of the new DT album, was visiting the Beacon that evening and offered to jam with Satchie and G3. Am not sure about the audience but I had a slight skull bust without any assistance … JP and Sat played Summer Song, with the former matching Sat, note for note – totally cool!!!

And finally the G3 jam – three tracks – Voodoo Child and Little Wing (both originally Jimi Hendrix numbers) and “Keeping on Rockin’ in the Free World” (by Neil Young). And sur-fuckin’-prise number 2, also coming on stage (and yeah, he too happened to be visiting NYC) was Neil Schon of Journey, playing lead with G3 and John Petrucci. I once read that a pig’s orgasm lasts close to 30 minutes…well, I believe I collectively took all the pigs on the planet earth head-on 3 quarters of an hour later.

The best part of the jam was when all of the guitarists playing rhythm got quiet, and each of the five guys playing lead got to play a little solo. Yngwie actually didn’t bump in during this time, and it was an awesome sight. They would stand in a row, play a small solo, and point to the next guy to continue the chain. Really neat.

The crowd just went berserk at the last track – Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World, a tribute to music lovers everywhere. What a night to remember.

Cheers

S