R Fripp: ~At 7 pm sharp; Lights out... only two dim spots pointing straigt down to a place on the stage right behind a pile of speakers -> didn't see even a glimpse of the man in the whole evening '¤^?*#~¨!'

...He went five miles out with those soundscapes... he went deep...

People took it quite well and relatively polite (even if not were all that presence (in the music), the applause kept coming every now and then).

... For me: That was something new...and different...a bit weird... 7:35 pm; Lights on. ~

S Vai: ~At 7:40 pm; Lights out... Steve walks in like he's coming to his own livingroom... people are sitting, but giving him a very warm welcome in our own kind of sullen but still solemn way (Joe and Steve must know by now that there are differences between the traits of different nations, but it's obviously very fascinating for them)... big smile on Steve's face.

The upper seats of the house are not being utilized (?) so there were only about 5000 (my best guess) spectators which made the atmosphere pretty unique... large room, earnest listeners; like some kind of devotions...

...Steve's show was awesome... very intense. Billy, Tony, Dave and Jeremy; what a tight band!

...nice little chats between some tunes... "Answers", "Reaper" and "For the Love of God" were the ones that Steve (and me too) seemed to be enjoying the most.

...standing obeisance... big smiles on the band faces... Steve says he's gonna come back soon... ~

J Satriani: ~Not a clue about time; Lights out... in comes Joe and the band... LOUD welcome... "Hands in the air" starts it all...

... the sounds are great and Joe and the band really seem to enjoy themselves... they are stealing the show... standing obeisance...

..."Satch Boogie"... Joe puts something new in it... 'nuff said (speechless)...

...cool new (to me at least) intro on "Cool #9"...

..."Gnaahh" and "I like the rain" shows that Joe really enjoys playing the new stuff, which mediates good vibes to the audience...

..."Up in Flames" worked just like I knew it would when played live... Joe (again) puts something extra on and the crowd is really getting in on the feelings that Joe creates...

..."Always with me, always with you" was really a nice surprise for me; Joe has developed this one to a whole new level than the original was, especially the improvised jam after the original end of the tune, where Galen starts to laugh shakin' his head like: "Jesus, what is that man (Joe) doing?" Something to keep heads up!...

...on "Searching" the band and us crowd...we find it again...

...Joe talks quite a lot between the tunes, except the final 'medley-kind of thing' with "ITLIS", "War" and "FIABD" that Joe (and the band of course) nicely knit together (as was introducted)... Joe is really having a blast... ~

JAM: ~ Robert had come on the stage already. Steve comes in waving to us, shakes Matt's, Jeff's and Robert's hands and bows real deep to Joe (who bows back)...

..."Ice 9" is really an icebreaker... Robert is shredding and gets full respect... something is about to happen...

...when "Red" starts to roll all the people on the floor gets up and the stage begins to suck them towards it... Joe and Steve start laughing... I'm flying...

...Joe introduces "The Murder" lifting Steve on the stand... wow!...

..."Rockin' in the free world" ends with an extraordinary dialogue of Joe's and Steve's guitars... when it finally ends, Steve is watching Joe, laughing and hits the air hard... time for thanks and goodbyes...

...my soul is fostered. ~ Thank you, Joe!

Here's my late review of the Helsinki G3 concert. A great concert indeed but way too loud for me. Maybe I'm getting too old (?) but I wish I had had a pair of earplugs. I am definitely gonna get a pair of those designed for music listening in the future... My ears have already started ringing constantly.

Anyway I was originally there for Mr Fripp's performance. Maybe I was in the minority but I got a little annoyed by the people walking in and wandering around the Icehall when the concert had already started! I felt a part of the audience was rude to Fripp. It seemed people got bored of the soundscapes and started clapping hands and even shouting and whistling. Anyway I enjoyed the soundscapes as I could considering. A rare opportunity to hear Fripp and the soundscapes live.

Of course I can understand that the soundscapes were a bit out of concept of wild and loud rock guitar playing that most of the people seemed to have come for.

Steve Vai was perfect and perfectly loud and Satch's set was great too and even louder! I am glad still I got there because I got to know Satriani and got to see the great guitar show! Very cool, very professional. I liked especially: "Is There Love In Space". But I wish Robert Fripp would visit Finland again with King Crimson and/or his soundscapes. Hope you weren't offended by the reception ;).

My ears are still ringing... ;)

Great show, just perfect, I’ve been a fan of Mr. Vai & Mr. Satriani for 15 years. Words can not express the gratitude I feel, that they finally brought the G3 to Finland….

This was the third time I saw Vai live and he was perfect as always, somehow he manages to entertain with every move he makes onstage, just amazing!.... BILLY's bass was not loud enough, same with Jeremy Colsons drums, other than that, everything was great. For me Vai was the highpoint of the show. The best thing was that he signed my Jem77fp at the record store few hours before the show. For a Vai fan like me, it was a religious experience to be face to face with him and have him hold my guitar, THANK YOU STEVE!.....

This was the first time I saw JOE live and he was also perfect and wonderfully loud. I don’t have the new record yet, so I didn’t get to the spirit that easily during the new songs. Still, Joe played an awesome set. The band was flawless, Campitelli's drums sounded great. I also got Joe’s signature on the cd cover of “Surfing with the alien” at the record store…THANK YOU JOE!….

It’s a pitty that Mr. FRIPP stayed so hidden during his “set” and the jam, can’t really form an opinion of him having heard only a couple of solos during the jam… His set was a bit too odd for me…. Thank you G3, I had a blast! ....

PS, the chairs were a BIG MISTAKE.... If you give a chair to typical Finnish person, odds are, he/she's gonna use it....even if he/she's having the best time of their life.

Amazing, unbelievable, fantastic, surreal.... These are the words that come to my mind when I recall last night's concert. It started with Robert Fripp playing his synth guitar conjuring up some new age-esque meditative music that unfortunately didn't click with some of the audience. Then Steve took over and rocked the venue, playing one hour's worth of favorites from his Passion And Warfare record and some of the newer songs as well. But my favorite performance came from Satch, who stole the show playing songs from the new record among classics like Always With Me, Always With You and War, which sounds amazing live. The show ended with a jam with all the players on the stage, although Fripp was somewhere behind in the darkness. Rockin' In A Free World, what an amazing performance. The audience, who was sitting on the chairs during the entire show got on their feet and rushed to the front, that was cool.

And then the surreal part: I got to meet the guys, because I won an aftershow pass! I managed to get my JS1000 signed by Joe and Steve, they were so kind... Thank you again, and see you next time!

Thank you sooo much for coming to Finland to play!

About show last night...

Fripp started with some nice avantgarde sounds and I liked it because I was not full of adrenalin and waiting some mindless guitar wanking. Obviously some people just wanted to hear loud rock guitar and they just went for a beer or whatever....

Steve`s set was awesome! Only Billy`s bass sound got lost behind.

What can say? Joe Satriani...... Alien sounds, smooth playing, bad ass blues. Variety of sounds was amazing! And Joe was having so much fun!