Live Response: Steve Vai | @ Fuzz Club Athens | 22.04.23

In a highly anticipated live show, the virtuoso American guitarist Steve Vai, took the stage at Fuzz Club Athens (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter). All this, ten years after his previous concert in Athens. Fuzzy Hound was right there among the crowd, and we're bringing you the best moments of the night!

Starting right on schedule

With the organisers and the band sticking religiously to the schedule, the concert kicked off at exactly 21:00, just as had been announced beforehand. Vai's tour, of which this particular show was a part, is centred around promoting his latest album, titled 'Inviolate'. True to his principles, yet with a fresh air about him, the artist presented the album's tracks in phenomenal fashion. Backing him up were the excellent musicians who joined him on stage, and not just them! Throughout the show, his techs and roadies were also up on stage, proving that they're genuinely good musicians themselves!

A long-lasting musical treat!

Beyond his excellent new tracks, Steve Vai didn't skip out on treating us to plenty of his old hits either. Especially on Bad Horsie, the band kicked off playing right after the now-famous scene from the film Crossroads played on the video screen. At the same time, right before the encore, the show officially closed with 'For The Love of God', in which one of Vai's collaborators sang opera! Now that was a surprise for the crowd, who watched the well-known track get performed in a completely unique way! The experiment was judged an absolute success, and it could definitely serve as inspiration for the guitarist's future work. Aside from that, together with the encore, the crowd enjoyed roughly 2 hours and 20 minutes of pure music, which made the concert an absolute delight!

Steve Vai: A rock hero of our generation!

The truth is that Vai is exceptional every single time! Whether he decides to play with just one hand (see 'Knapsack'), or he's wielding guitars like the Hydra, he is without a doubt an artist – a musician who leaves his mark. And you can see that in the crowd itself. A crowd which, for the most part, was made up of fellow musicians from the Greek scene. In terms of the show itself, the guitarist was, once again, an absolute joy to watch. Whether he was joking around and chatting with the crowd, or actually playing, the interaction he had with us pulled everyone right into the game. For our part, we'd like to stress that as Greece, we really wouldn't want to wait another ten years to see him up close again. So, while we wait for his next live show, we thank him for everything he made us feel this past Saturday!