Alcatrazz/California, USA 1984

Introducing an audience album containing the now legendary “Vai premiere of ALCATRAZZ”! What is a “legendary”? It is a very realistic depiction of Steve Vai, who was unknown at the time, dominating the audience with just his guitar playing! ALCATRAZZ spectacularly appeared on the scene together with guitar revolutionary Yngwie Malmsteen. Japan was not the only country that was shocked by his extremely fast playing and neoclassical style. Even in America, the center of his activities, Yngwie was attracting the attention of the entire scene as a “new guitar god.” However, in July 1984, Yngwie collided with Graham and suddenly escaped from ALCATRAZZ. After that, Steve Vai was hired at a sudden audition (Chris Impellitteri also participated in the audition, and Vai thought, “Chris was the obvious choice.”) This work is Vai’s debut stage. Although this work has a clear and wonderful sound, the show of this work is wrapped in a strange atmosphere that it is impossible to put a lot of words into such high sound quality. The tape of “Incubus” from the DJ announcing the start of the performance was met with a huge ovation, but the cheers were all filled with calls of “Yngwie!!”. When “Too Young To Die, Too Drunk To Live” finally begins, the voice of “Where’s Yngwie?” can be heard repeatedly, and the upset appearance of the audience can be felt in a very real way. When the first song ends, there are some cheers that I haven’t noticed yet, but it immediately explodes with shouts of “Where’s Yngwie!?” and “F*ck You!!”! In this situation, Graham was unable to intervene as MC, and the band was unable to start the next song. “Jet To Jet,” which began as if ignoring the audience, changed the spirited mood. A similar cheer goes up during the high-speed solo part, and a genuine ovation is given when the song ends. Even after that, there were some audience members who repeatedly shouted “Where’s Yngwie!?”, but there was no more yelling like there was before “Jet To Jet”. Vai was able to dominate the audience with just that performance! However, this thrilling reversal was not a miracle caused solely by Vai’s ability. Graham’s singing on “Jet To Jet”, which changed his fate, has a spirit that I have never heard before. While the rhythm section roared with such force that it seemed like they were yelling at the audience to “shut up!”, Graham glared at the audience who were yelling insults at him and sang, sang, sang with a powerful and intimidating voice of anger! That’s where fate’s all-out solo cuts into it. This take is amazing. Then, in a sudden turn of events, the audience erupted into applause, and Graham’s relieved voice shouted “Thank You!!”. The following songs, “Night Games” and “Island In The Sun,” let us hear their high and proud singing voices as if they were singing a triumphant song. How wonderful! After that, the venue warmly congratulated Vai, who continued to play songs and performed guitar solo times that included phrases from his solo album. Whistling and applause, which are normally commonplace, can sound so moving… Even in the second half of the show, there were still some audience members shouting “Where’s Yngwie!?” and “You Suck!!” (if you’re a Yngwie fan, you can’t help it), but even those voices were met with laughter. The mood becomes so warm that some customers even come back for more. This work is a live album of only about 45 minutes. The previously released titles that included this show had been increasing in size by mixing in the recordings of the Japanese performance, but in this work, we have narrowed it down purely to that day. However, the drama packed into such a short amount of time delivers more emotion than even dozens of box sets. From Yngwie Malmsteen to Steve Vai. A drama of super, super, super unique personalities that makes you dizzy just by listing their names. It is unimaginable how upset the audience was when they were faced with this without knowing anything about it. Then, the turmoil is subdued by the ferocious phrases played by the strange-looking guitarist. The performance in Japan was also dramatic, but it was even more impressive because they conquered the harsh and harsh country that is completely different from the kind Japanese people. A masterpiece of an ultra-dramatic live album, unprecedented in HR/HM history. Please be a witness to history too! Live at De Anza Theater, Riverside, California, USA 13th July 1984 TRULY AMAZING/PERFECT SOUND (44:11) 1. Intro 2. Too Young To Die, Too Drunk To Live 3. Jet To Jet 4. Night Games 5. Island In The Sun 6. Kree Nakoorie 7. Guitar Solo 8. Desert Song 9. Hiroshima Mon Amour 10. Suffer Me Graham Bonnet – Vocal Steve Vai – Guitar Jimmy Waldo – KeyboardsGary Shea – Bass Jan Uvena – Drums