By Lisa Burke
April 9th 2016, The Joint @ Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas NV: To continue my weekend Las Vegas adventures on April 9th 2016 after seeing Guns N’ Roses the night before and contemplating trying to see them again, I actually ended up at the Generation Axe show at the Joint in the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino featuring five different uniquely stylized guitar gods. These five are among this generation’s top guitarists and featured Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, Zakk Wylde, Nuno Bettencourt, and Tosin Abasi.
Prior to the show I had thought they would all perform separate solos and it would turn into a slight ego competition, however, what was stellar about this evening was that they all unified their individual styles through duets and collaborated on numerous occasions, building layers until the finale where they all appeared together, still with bass and drums, and at times even a keyboardist as background fill to complete the sound as a whole.
Nigerian American from Washington DC Tosin Abasi also comes to us from the instrumental progressive band Animals As Leaders where he has developed a brilliance at playing a customized 8-string Ibanez in a very progressively fluid and intellectually dynamic style. He put on a flawless performance and later in the evening appeared very humbled to be next to Steve Vai and friends, yet he belonged there as much as the rest of them with his accomplishments in my opinion, despite his younger age of thirty three.
Next up was Portugal-born guitarist Nuno Bettencourt who is of course best known for his work in the band Extreme and who recently has worked with the likes of artists such as Rihanna. He has been known for his Washburn N4 small reverse headstock super strat and while I’ve seen him jam before on a few occasions and actually have been underwhelmed with most of the songs from Extreme, he played a very top notch set incorporating some acoustics as well as electric and the last song he played was a duet with Zakk Wylde called ‘Sideways’ that both artists sang on, and it really threw me in a loop even though it was well performed. I just did not expect Zakk Wylde’s entrance to be so sappy and they both appeared to be way too comfortable with the stripping away of any bad boy wild guitar riffing and solo work to perform what in the midst of the rest of the show’s energy seemed to be a love song between the two guitarists. While I appreciated the collaborations 100 per cent, I still felt this was a strange intro for Zakk and right afterwords he had to spend most of the next song getting his tail out from between his legs which he absolutely succeeded at, and in my opinion even though it wasn’t presented as a competition he stole the show for me with second prize going to Yngwie Malmsteen. Zakk used his usual plan of attack with the over the head, behind the back guitar antics, and of course he snuck in the Zakk Sabbath which is my favorite of anything he’s put out there. Also, he just had the most complete song list with more of a band quality than a solo performance although with the maniacal solos being shot at you one after another it did make it difficult to acknowledge any of the other troops on stage who were also doing a great job.
The segway into Yngwie Malmsteen was a much better transition and I’m sure I’m missing some moments here with Tosin and Nuno but the main Malmsteen guitar solo time was completely intense in a spaceship landing in your backyard straight from Mars kind of way, to the point where I had to leave room for a bit to digest what I just heard. There was a time I saw Yngwie and couldn’t get past his ego because it seemed that neither could he, and for that reason alone I could not be too impressed with him, however on this occasion I must admit despite a few ego driven hair flip moments he was focused and mind bending at the speed of light throughout, and at the end, after Steve Vai and everyone came out, I believe he was the last to show up and in no way tried to steal anyone’s thunder. This was hands down the best performance I’ve ever seen front Yngwie Malmsteen and perhaps even led me into my conclusion that Steve Vai, who I had never witnessed live until this night, actually came across as the most underwhelming performance of the night. That is of course in no way to undermine the amazing technical skill and talent of Vai in the least, but perhaps his style was just the one that made the calmest impact and it was therefore harder to appreciate the inner workings behind the sound. He also looked a bit nerdy with the short hair and black rimmed glasses, so that also created another interesting element that I wasn’t expecting. Vai’s playing style incorporates different fun techniques including two-handed tapping, alternate picking, legato, hybrid picking, sweep picking, whammy bar acrobatics, and circular vibrato. It’s definitely not boring but when you’ve got a neo-classical maniac from Mars, and a badass riff happy biker from hell next to you, suddenly you have to stand on your head for attention. The ending with all five was truly awe inspiring and just by the difference in appearance of their guitars you could almost determine the difference in styles without hearing it, which made the visual appeal as beautiful as the sound qualities. I thought Nuno and Yngwie were a good match for each other who connected well and even stronger was the connection between Steve and Tosin with such a serenity about it. If you missed this show you definitely missed out on such a unique experience that was extremely tastefully crafted. I am so grateful to have seen this performance in Las Vegas as opposed to in Los Angeles two nights later like I originally planned, because the Joint is probably my favorite space to see bands with its perfect happy medium between a large and small venue and it couldn’t be in a better location surrounded by all things rock ‘n roll at Hard Rock Casino where after the show I got to jump over or maybe I even flew, who knows, to the Vinyl stage close by to catch Jizzy Pearl from Love/Hate sing with the band Sin City Sinners. I may have made an unannounced on stage appearance to show my appreciation to the tunes, before I was politely escorted off and back into the audience. One last hoorah before I end my story is that I have never had a bad time in Vegas and if you saw five brilliant guitar players on stage at the same time play tunes together as I got to see on that night, neither would you.
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Remaining Tour Dates:
4/23 — Wilmington NC @ Cape Fear Community College
4/24 — Washington DC @ Warner Theatre
4/25 — Cincinnati OH @ Taft Theatre
4/26 — Indianapolis IN @ Murat Theatre
4/27 — Nashville TN @ Ryman Auditorium
4/29 — Chicago IL @ Copernicus Center
5/1 — Madison WI @ Orpheum Theatre
5/2 — Royal Oak MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre
5/4 — Toronto ON @ Massey Hall
5/5 — Upper Darby PA @ Tower Theater
5/6 — Westbury NY @ Theatre at Westbury
5/7 — Hampton Beach NH @ Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom
5/8 — Providence RI @ Providence Performing Arts Center