My trip from Atlanta to Nashville, then Winston-Salem, then Atlanta(29th) G3 tour was one of the best ever! I drove over 1000 miles in 3 days to see my favorite musicians. I was amazed because I only saw 3 shows, 3 nights in a row, and they were on a non-stop 10 night tour. Night after night, these guys would give110%!! Nashville was great, and Neal S. from Journey joined the guys on stage! (..and I was hoping..Adrian Belew would show up as well..but no go.) I was dead tired after 3 days. and it was WORTH every minute!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for the great music Joe!

a dedicated fan! Todd

a late review...

... the show was excellent... the sound was good... the lighting was nice... and of course the music was wonderful....

i got a chance to talk with joe and jeff before the show at gruhn's guitars... and also neal schon... this just made the whole experience even better... i thought about waiting after the show to talk to steve, but i was a bit tired... someday i'm gonna get to the winter NAMM show... (keep going there steve :) ...

thanks for taking the time to talk with us joe and jeff and neal... you guys are great... continued happiness and success... the world needs more guys like you...

and a big thanks to joe, steve, and yngwie for giving all of us some great music...

The show was just awesome. Yngwie was just amazing and a pleasure to watch. Vai is simply a master of his instrument. Wow what can you say but he is awesome. Satch is perfection! I don't think he can mess up. Just a great guitarist.

The only down fall is when Yngwie begin to trade licks with the G3's special guest Neal Schon on Voodoo Chile. He totally screwed things up and Satch didn't even get to play solo. Besides that is was just awesome.

Yngwie did more improvising then anyone else. Far Beyond The Sun was a real treat. Vai by far had the best band. Whispering a Pray gave me chills. Satch had the best tone of the three. Midnight was mind blowing.

Thanks for having me there... It was lovely to be a part of your evening. Tezra

Email: Allaboutmoving1@aol.com

Yngwie was of course FANTASTIC! I felt sorry for the band that was with him b/c it was apparent that they knew that everyone there was just mainly watching the flamboyant guitar player toss his fender strat around and play as many shredding notes as a chainsaw on full speed. Yngie even condecended to play his nylon string guitar (which sounded GREAT) and to top it off he played one of his pieces from his symohony work CONCERTO.

Steve Vai was next, he started off with a white Ibanez Jem 3 neck guitar (top-12strg middle-6string bottom-fretless 6 string). He played rhythm and lead, and of course that FUNKY WIERD style he has from the Zappa days is still there. The surprise he had was that BILLY SHEEHAN and TONY McALPINE were backing him in his band. They all did a fantastic job. Steve ended with FOR THE LOVE OF GOD (Passion and Warfare) an almost note for note perfection from the album.

Joe Satrianni was the headliner of course! And the stage was set for excitement! He started with his red JS guitar playing STATCH BOOGIE right off the bat. His amps this time were not the Marshall I was used to seeing behind him, they were 3 Peavy TripleX's and what a FAT TONE! It was the smoothest distortion with no tinny highs like the Marshalls tone. He used his SILVER JS and a new FLAME JS which I think was cooler than the SILVER JS. For a longtime I ave memorized his solo guitar works like New Rays from the sun, Back to Shali Bal, or midnight and I always wanted to hear him play those.... well my fantasy came true! He played Midnight from Surfing with the Alien...It wasn't note for note but it was AWSOME, he actually kinda had the same problems I encounter when I play, and I was getly reminded that he was a man and NOT A GOD!

All in all a the last jam songs were KEWL, Yngwie started with RED HOUSE, Steve VAI with Little wing and Joe with KEEP ON ROCKIN IN THE FREE WORLD. They were joined by Neil Schon from Journey fame, and a local up and commer who was fun to watch.

This will go down as ONE OF THE BEST CONCERTS of ALL TIME for me and my friends!

Keep rockin' G3, keep ROCKN' IN THE FREE WORLD! Tony

3 of the greatest rock guitarists ever at the former home of the Grand Ole Opry here in Music City USA. What could be better than that? Steve commented on the honor of standing on that stage where some of the greatest American songwriters and pickers have played, and all of us Nashvillians sure appreciated that. Well, onto my comments.

Yngwie An unbelievable combination of virtuoso guitar playing and showmanship. After about the 50th throwing the guitar over the shoulder and around the back, kicking picks to the audience, etc. the act grew a little tiresome, but his playing was awesome, his band was tight, and he supplied some serious energy to kick off what was to become a completely incredible night of shredding. Personally, I thought his tone was a little brittle and trebly - at least for the venue. But he rocked and both his guitar playing and stage presence was flashy as ever.

Steve My favorite set. Holy sh*t what a band. Billy Sheehan on bass! Tony MacAlpine on guitar and keys! Plus an exceptional powerhouse drummer and a second guitarists whose names I do not know. Steve is transcendental - he's so far into his own dimension of playing that he easily outshines the master Joe and the maestro Yngwie. For The Love Of God was incredible. The triple neck intro was amazing (I'd sure love to hear him play more fretless guitar!). Out of adjectives... Steve's set was the highlight for both me and my wife.

Joe The master. That should be enough said. The song selection was a little too "standard", especially for such a short set. His playing was, of course, flawless. He has the best guitar tone I can imagine, and I think his Peavey Triple half stacks are new - yet his tone is still exactly the same (he's still got the same fingers after all!).

The Jam I have mixed feelings about this - there were some things I didn't like. First, two out of three songs were Hendrix tunes. That kind of ruined the variety factor. Second, Yngwie's showmanship - over the shoulder and around the back, kicks, picks flying, etc. should be reserved for his own set. When your on stage with Satch and Vai you should have the respect to not distract from them or the music with stage antics. At times he walked to the side of the stage or took his guitar off and played with it and tossed it around like he was too good to lay down some rhythm while the others kept jamming. He's awesome, but he's also awesomely obnoxious. It was a special treat when they made it G4 and brought out Neal Schon. This is a guy who was playing with Santana when the rest of them were teenagers woodshedding at home. Yet, he obvious felt a little overpowered by the 50 notes per second guys. Neal's playing was great and he surely held his own during trade-off solos - he just didn't play as many notes :). Then they made it "G5" for the final encore (Neil Young's "Rockin' In The Free World") by adding a Nashville picker whose name I didn't catch. A heavy set guy playing a gold sparkle Telecaster may have looked out of place, but it was obvious that the rest of the guys enjoyed his playing and were encouraging, especially Mr. Vai. To be honest, I wish Joe wouldn't have sung that tune. He did it in kind of a speaking style. I'll bet Neal Schon could have done it much better.

Conclusion 3 sets by the 3 best virtuoso guitarists. I love them all and have been a fan of all three as long as they have been recording. Each set was remarkable in its own way, but Steve Vai's stood above the others for me.

I just got home from G3 tonight at the Home Church of Country Music, The Historic Ryman Auditorium!!! What a contrast!!! Yngwie where Hank Williams once stood and sang. It was a full house on a Monday night and a great show including Neil Schon in the Jam at the end of the show.. super cooool!!!! I knew when I saw a black Les Paul with a Floyd Rose being sound checked that Neil was there, also they played a little Santana before Joe's set as well ... a hint of things to come?? I think so! Here is the review on the show. Yngwie...I have seen him 3 times now, everytime his technical skills still amaze me. The problem with Yngwie is..... after the first song tonight he had blown his whole wad so to speak. So his performance tonight left me kinda flat without some vocals to balance out the onslaught of 32nd notes he always comes with. His stage antics left a few folks outside saying when I was leaving that he was an ass and trying to show up everyone. I have met him once and in his defense I found him not to be the jerk everyone thinks he is. I think Yngwie Rules, but do agree that he could tone down a bit and be a team player. His band was not nearly as tight as previous versions. Yngwie ....You either love him or hate him it seems. I can't help but love someone who has come so far and made such an nuclear impact on the guitar players like myself everywhere!

To:Steve Vai Your...... Superhuman, Soulful and Tasteful most of all. I loved this performance.The band was clearly a factor in this one too in the most positive way. Tony Mcalpine ,Billy Sheehan. What else do I need to say!!!! Oh Yeah I forgot... My wife wanted to see more and she could care less about a bunch of Guitar Superstars. As you can see Steve reached everyone with the power of his musicianship, enough said! Joe Satriani was exactly what I expected..... a flawless performance! Loved the song choices.. all the good stuff and no filler!!! Thank You Joe!

The Jam: Well this was special because Neil Schon was here and It was so cool to see all these guys trading licks standing side by side on the Ryman Stage...I felt so lucky to see this. WOW ! WOW! WOW! is all I kept saying during the Jam.

Take my advice on G3. Go see it and be inspired!!!