This was the First time I saw the all mighty Satch and his astounding members. Satch has long time been a HUGE ENORMOUS influence on me and I hope that one day Ill get to be on the G3 tour with him playing La Grange or Henrix covers right along side him and Vai. I met Satch the night of the concert an he told me that the NY Yankees were his mothers favorite team and that struck such a nerve inside my heart that I knew he had an enormous bond with his mother. The type of bond that is so strong and worthy that nothing could break it. If Satch ever read this I want him to know that I have one very good thing in common with him. Its the bond I share with my mother. Shes the best and she'd do anything for me. Joe Satriani is in my honest to god opinion the best composer and guitar player Ive ever had the pleasure of hearing. Hes taught many people. Hes taught me in very many ways but not in a literal sence. Satch, Your the greatest and all ways will be. The night I met you will be unforgetable. Thanks for having such a great site and being such a great musician.

Ever so sincerely, Ed Carson

!!!!!!!!!!!Damn... What else can i say, best show ive seen in a while. I drove all the way from Tulsa, oklahoma. I loved it. Satch, if your reading this i think your the most kick ass guitar player on earth, to be honest i never really listened to ur music much seeing as how im 14 and all ppl my age like is rap metal and crap, but after ur show i went and bought all of your cds i could find.. Thats the only kinda music im gonna listen to from now on... You Guys Rocked, most definitely!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just loved that show Vai is possibly the best showman i have ever seen great stage performance musically most of all... John petrucci blew me away, And as for Satch , i shouldnt have to say anything, great job to everyone hope i can meet everyone of you one day, maybe play a show together...

Wayland from tulsa Oklahoma

Good God... it may not have been the Trinity but it was damn close. Petrucci... never really listened to the guy before, but he was pretty damn good. i was really impressed.

Vai was amazing. He continues to put on one hell of a show. He's incredibly engaging, really draws the audience in. He's smooth, cool, rock-n-roll, dear God I might have a man crush.

Satch was master of ceremonies. My first time to see him and I was floored. Might drive to Austin to see them again.

The jam will go down as one of my favorite concert moments of all time. Timmons was a fantastic addition and we Texans appreciated the first selection (go see it for yourself Houston and Austin, I'll give away no secrets). While it may have been childs play to these 4 guitarists, to a hack like me it was absolutely amazing how they shredded those songs.

As for the people complaining about the volume, my handy dandy ear plugs were perfect... sure the guy next to me called me a fag, but i could hear every note. They came out during the jam though and I thought the mix was great (sure it wasn't studio quality, but for Christ sake it's a rock show).

If you're waiting on the show to come to your city, you're going to enjoy the hell out of it.

With a rank of 8....this is how I split the show up: JP-4, SV-1, JS-2, and the jam-1. I thought John Petrucci had an excellent set! The new songs were just so good as many have already commented on. You could tell the crowd really liked him...they gave him much love! Steve Vai on the other hand, didn't seem to go over as well for the most part. As I've been hearing, Steve Vai put on quite a show...but it was more showbiz than anything. The worst thing about his set was the fact that you could not hear his guitar that well over the rest of the instruments...as others said about it being loud, the sound was a bit thick and unclear. You could barely make out what he was playing at certain times. I think you could really sense it from the rest of the crowd too..it was just that obvious. And the new songs he played from his live album didn't go over as well as his older material. During "Whispering a Prayer" ....it seemed like he was trying to put the audience to sleep. It was pretty funny when they played Animal..when Vai and Keneally do some of that crazy whammy bar work, when the grab each other's trem bar...Mike pulled Steve's off accidently LOL. "Jibboom" turned out to be one of the main highlights during his set...with Vai and Billy were going back and forth, playing off each others parts. But at the end of his set, he got a pretty warm response from the crowd...mainly due to the respect they have for him. I mean come on, he is STEVE VAI....just not his best show. Joe Satriani was as good as usual. He was as good as any other time I've seen him.(That was the 5th time). I like how he doesn't have to jump around and act all crazy for the crowd unlike Vai. He just slowly cruised up on stage during the intro of Cool #9. He really knows how to get the crowd into it! But I just hated the fact that he didn't incorporate more of the older songs that are less popular into the set..or even new ones for that matter. I wasn't all that into hearing the same old songs he always plays. Hearing him play "The Extremist" was really a treat though. And overall, Satch pulled off another great show for the crowd. Okay, now for the jam...they had Andy Timmons come out to play with the others liked they've done for the last 2 G3 shows they had at DFW. I love the symbolic idea of having these great guitarists together to jam on some of the most classic guitar songs ever made...but when its all said and done...its just too much stuff going on at one time! (especially with Timmons in the mix) But the crowd seemed please for the most part with the jam. ZZ Top's "LaGrange" came off pretty well as expected, being in played in TX. Jimi's "Voodoo Child" was a just too saturated with guitars...oh, and this time John Petrucci did Satch's wah for the intro. "Little Wing" was a bit better, with the more space they had to work with in a slower song. And they did in fact play "Going Down" at the end of the show..which all in all came out pretty well. But all thru-out the jam..the sound quality was just not that great at all...it was just too much.

I do want to make something clear though - I really like Steve Vai's work for the most part..but he just didn't go over well at all at this show like he has at others. I saw the second G3 show at the Bronco Bowl in Dallas in '97. Now he was ON at that show...very memorable. And of course the sound quality was MUCH better.

Best.Concert.Ever.

I don't know what I'm gonna do when I go see another concert, and just yawn, because nobody can hold a candle to these guys!

However, they need to get a new sound man or something to adjust for the different venues, because Vai's set and the Jam was waaaaaayyyyyy to loud. Once they all just started going at it all you heard was a ringing sound, they just blew away bass hall. Other then that, they were all incredible. Every last musician on that stage.

So there I was: at work, 4pm, July 5th, and ok with the fact that I was not going to the G3 show. I had seen back-to-back nights of the original tour with EJ and was ok with the fact that I wasn't going this time due to the Bass Hall's inflated prices (nice venue, but you definitely pay for the scenery). Suddenly a friend of mine from work tells me he is going to the show and has 2 extra tickets! His uncle is part of the stage crew and has 4 FREE seats reserved for him at Will Call. With a mad dash to the phone to call my wife and a baby sitter found, we were on our way!

Once we met my friend and his wife at the Bass Hall, we picked up our tickets...but were given more! Each of us had backstage passes!!! Cool! We were escorted backstage so we could see the setup prior to the concert and then were offered the opportunity to watch the entire concert from the side of the stage! How cool it was to watch each of the artists come by us and get prepared to play...then have then come by after they were finished and shake hands with them! It was also cool to see them interact with each other, the set crew, and their families (Portnoy's little girl was cracking me up with her huge protective headphones).

No offense, but by far the best musical experience overall was Petrucci's set...perhaps this was because it was all new material. However, Petrucci's melodies are gorgeous/interesting/captivating, and his shredding ability is uncanny! The interplay between John and Dave at the beginning of "Lost Without You" was beautiful, and Portnoy (of course) was a machine! Their 2nd tune was full of meter changes (which I love) and blew me away! The Paradigm Shift/Erotomania medley was very cool as well. John HAS to record this material for a CD soon...it is too good to not have out there for the masses!!!

It was definitely great to see Billy and Vai play together, and their dual during Jibboom was priceless. I also commend Steve for playing material from AiaUW...the new tunes sounded great (especially Incantation....how do they keep that middle section together the entire time?!?!?!?). Plus, they dumped The Crying Machine from the set and replaced it with Erotic Nightmares! Very cool indeed! But the best of this set was Keneally (as always) and Virgil. Keneally always blows me away...he looks so out of place up there with the rest of the band BUT (IMO) he is the most talented! Virgil was the brightest part of the set because his playing is AMAZING! His solo was, by far, one of the best I've heard...but even listening to his interplay with the rest of the band in the other songs was incredible! Hopefully we'll be hearing more from him in higher profile gigs...

Satch was Satch....perfect. As some readers said before, I wish that he would change up his set a bit and play either different or new material. There are so many cool songs off of CP and EoC that he could play instead of the same old Summer Song or Satch Boogie, but I guess those songs still appeal to the casual fan. Regardless, it still amazes me to watch Satch play...he is so calm and cool (a BIG difference from watching Vai) and there is never a mistake.

We had to leave at 11pm due to the babysitter (right in the middle of my favorite, Raspberry Jam), so we didn't see the jam at the end...but Andy Timmons grab his guitar during Satch's set and sat next to me while warming up. I'm sure that was great to see the 6 of them (Vai, Timmons, John, Joe, Billy, Stu) together on one stage. This was definitely THE best lineup for G3 (it should be called G4 with Keneally there, but....) by far!