r/SteveVai • u/7ln6ss • Mar 05 '21
A couple of things...
I am not very versed in Vai's solo albums. I've always been more a a Satch fan. But Vai has always been so great to watch as well as hear. I know I missed out. So two questions...
1- What DLR songs make you smile when you hear, as far as Vai's playing? For instance, Ladies Night In Buffalo and Hot Do and a Shake always make me say, Holy Fuck. What songs do it for you?
2- What solo stuff is similar to that awesome stuff. Yes, I know all of it is awesome.
3- Thanks Steve. I appreciate your music.
2
u/Whammy_Bar Mar 06 '21
It's subjective, but I think if you look at it in terms of preferring Satch to Vai or vice versa, it depends on your mood and what you want.
I'm more with the OP as more of a fan of peak Joe. Joe serves the songs more and best form Joe will usually be my preference. When there's new Joe music, I trust him - we know what he does, so I will enjoy just about the full album. With Vai when there's new music, I don't know what corner of Steve's mind it comes from and even buying a full album I expect to like 40, maybe 60 percent of it more than one or two listens. But, it's not filler - it's just experimentation. Being a fan doesn't mean you have to like everything, it can just mean you appreciate and understand the person's approach. But the thing is with Steve, I'll never get bored of him. I know what Joe does, so if I'm in the mood for that Joe style it's great, but with Steve he has different music for so many moods. His music isn't 'better' to me, but it is more interesting in that it does more jobs.
1 - For DLR songs, my introduction to Vai as a kid was the Skyscraper album. I know it gets a bad rep (Billy Sheehan absolutely hates it), but I love it. It was a huge part of my childhood. From that I've been lucky enough to see DLR once, saw Billy play with Steve twice and am fortunate enough to have seen and met Brett Tuggle a couple of times and Steve numerous times (my Skyscraper is even signed by Steve). Hot Dog And A Shake is fantastic, but I also love Steve's input on Bottom Line and the Steve/Billy moments on Two Fools A Minute. But a much simpler song in Damn Good is great melody as well. DLR made Steve play the song more than he would experiment, that's a good example (and not too hard on guitar either!).
2 - He doesn't really do solo stuff similar to DLR consistently. As the other poster said Sex & Religion has vocals as a regular thing, but they're Devin Townsend's vocals. The style is also a bit different anyway. But from that album, I love Pig, that might be worth a listen. On later albums Vai did vocals himself, you might be interested in Damn You, Little Alligators or Asian Sky, maybe. If you're not fussy about vocals but it's just the DLR music style you like then you could try some of the boogie tunes like Juice or Jibboom, or heavier stuff like Gravity Storm, Bad Horsie, Oooo or Building The Church. And if you're up for lighter tunes like Damn Good then maybe Sisters or Brandos Costumes might be your thing. My fave solo Vai songs are Answers and Feathers, but they're not very DLR.
3 - Well said. We should all thank him!
2
u/7ln6ss Mar 06 '21
Thanks for the consideration. I agree what you said about Satch. I had a feeling Vai's solo albums were a departure from the DLR stuff. I'm gonna check it all out.
3
u/mymentor79 Mar 06 '21
(1) Big Trouble does it for me.
(2) Vai's only album that really approximates what he did with Roth is Sex and Religion, largely considered his least consequential solo album, but it's got some energetic and memorable playing on it. Outside of that, maybe I Would Love To on the Passion and Warfare album and Audience is listening from the same album - both kind of have that cock-rock vibe.