Hi All,

Ok while its still all very fresh and ringing in my ears, I wanted to jump on here and give you my report on the first ever G3 show in Sydney...

After a 3 1/4 hour wait outside, I finally got in and ended up about 2-3 from the front right in line with where Joe's pedal board was to be set up! I thought that was impressive, as there were a bunch of people (platinum ticket holders) who had already filled up the front row before 'the public' got let into the venue...

As I had seen Joe (3 times) live and Steve (1 time) live before, I was really excited to watch John Petrucci open.....



WOW, what else can I say. The guy is just mind blowing to say the least. He seemed to have a great time and was just letting rip. Unfortunately the sound engineer was having a hard time trying to balance the whole band, and so it was at times very hard to hear John over Dave LaRue's bass. This notwithstanding, the guys were great. I was front and centre near Dave LaRue for the whole set and I gotta say, he was just the greatest....a wonderful way to check out Joe's new bass player up really close!



Oh, and I gotta mention Mike Portnoy!!; he was just incredible. He has such a command of those drums that its scary. I consider Jeff C to be pretty close to my favourite drummer, but Mike tonight was eye opening....there's a difference between seeing him on the Tokyo G3 DVD (on which I think he is the best out of all three drummers), but to see it up close and personal live is mind altering :)

John was very gracious and happy with the response he got from the crowd....please come back soon John. Actually Mike Portnoy asked that we all come back next year for Dream Theatre. John Petrucci is a JEM!



Up next: Steve Vai and The Breed.

When I saw Steve play in Sydney for the first time last year at the Enmore, I was 4th row from the back up in the rafters. The gig was great, but the view was from WAY back...so tonight, it was a real treat to be 2 from the front and see how Steve just 'owns' a crowd. He does it in many ways. He would visually pick out someone in the crowd and smile/wink at them while he 'shows' them something on the guitar...its quite funny and terrific to be a part of.



Tony Mcalpine was just brilliant when he had his solo spot and Billy was storming on his Bass solo as well....what a wonderful freak.



Again, the sound for Steve's set was a little poor as well, but easy overlooked because they were all just playing out of this world.

Next up: Joe Satriani, of course



Somehow (and I don't know how)....Joe just gets better and better every time I see him play live. It was extra special to see him tear through the new stuff off Super Colossal and to see how Dave LaRue interacts in his new home...he was doing double duty tonight....what a trooper.



Galen was solid as ever....Jeff was stomping...and the whole band was sounding spot on awesome.



Even the sound engineer had nailed the problems that had plagued the first two sets by the time Joe got up there....



A real treat was to see (during the extended solo outro to Always....) Steve Vai sneaks on stage wearing a Mick Dundee hat and letting rip on Joe's final song....then after Steve had finished up, John sneaks on wearing, you guessed it; a black Acubra hat with Crocodile teeth, and finishes up Always with a flury....



This got the crowd really in the mood for what was to follow next:

The G3 Jam!!:

Ok, so you can watch this take place on a DVD at home, on multiple occassions (like on the Tokyo DVD) and think that you have seen it....but I can assure you that it is truly a unique and very special event to see these three guys going flat out on the one stage live. I didn;t know where to look....it was absolutely fantastic....

The first song, Voodoo Chile was incredible....after it was finished (and it was LONG), Joe was seen to be shaking the flames out from the tips of his fingers! (not literally, but you get the idea. He thought they were just smokin'!)



Next up was 'My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mamma' and Steve owned this song (although John had the last laugh...I'll explain shortly)...the trading back and forth between all three of them in this was just hilarious....John would wait for his second turn before he started pulling famous (and totally random) melodies from different songs out of no where. This was visibly cracking Steve up, who in turn had his go at trying to see if the other guys could spot the meoldy to a famous tune he was playing within the tune, so to speak...It was great to witness that....these guys just trying to crack each other up mid song...

Finally, the guys brought the house down with 'Rockin in the Free World'.
This one was quite a version to end the gig with...

The boys really made sure that the first Sydney G3 was never going to be forgotten...the triple part feedback harmonising at the end of this one was awesome....



So, to rap up, after over 8 hours of standing up and nearly 4 1/2 hours of guitar brilliance, I'm a tired lad.

So, all I can say is......if you can, run, don't walk, to get a ticket to a G3 event near you...you will never forget it!!

Peace,

D.

COMPLETELY AWESOME!!!! :)

Thanks for a great review and pics...love the hats, but......somehow that hat just dudn't look "at home" on our Joe, LOL!! Guess I'm too used to seeing him in his bucket hats :D

Wish someone was able to get the jam songs on video, would have loved to see them goofing like that!

Great review dasherdave, I'm off to the Regent in Melbourne to watch G3 tonight... woohoo! :D

Awesome JS10th.com...you'll LOVE it!!

D.

I really wish someone told Satch to come here in Middle East..:(

I was there!! And extremely squashed lol, i was against the fence the whole show basicly, and fuck it was loud my ears where ringing for ages, wasn't as loud as Yngwie that was the loudest shit i've ever heard oh my!! I was right in front of Yngwie's "Wall of Marshalls"lol so yeah saw ears for a bit lol.

G3 was such an awsome show!! I was so stuffed after 4hrs though.

When Joe played crowd chant, did the crowd in sydney/melb get into it?

In brisbane, it seemed like most of the audience didn't know the song, and it was sad watching Joe playing the song and getting no feedback from the crowd. The crowd in brissy was very quiet unfortunately - although there were a few headbangers who went off for the entire 4 hours - thought they would break their necks at one stage!

I think we're all pretty familiar with Crowd Chant, it's just not really an Aussie thing I don't think. It was pretty dismal in Melbourne too... still a great piece tho :D

Hey I just bought the live in san Fran DVD, and when Joe starts introducing his band, why did the crowd boo the bass player?

They stuuuuuuu him, and the sydney gig had good audience partisipation from where i was anyway, up the front against the fence :)

lol, only experience i have of actually being in a crowd was at deep purple (in new zealand) and steve morse tried to get the audience responding to him but he had to start waving his hands and jumping about because no one knew what the hell he was doing! :lol:

(i did, but i wasn't about to be the only one making guitar noises copying steve :P )

please tell me you recorded it :hunger: :hunger:

hi guys,
would someone mind posting up a full list of all the songs played at the g3 sydney concert. it seemed awsome.

thanks