This was easily one of the single greatest live experiences of my entire life. This album was monumental for me. Not only that, but the rest of the set was just as good as hearing the entire P&W album. Set list:
1. Bad Horsie
2. The Crying Machine
3. Gravity Storm
4. Whispering a Prayer (followed by band introductions)
Passion and Warfare
5. Liberty
6. Erotic Nightmares
7. The Animal
8. Answers
9. The Riddle
10. Ballerina 12/24
11. For the Love of God
Intermission
12. The Audience Is Listening
13. I Would Love To
14. Blue Powder
15. Greasy Kid's Stuff
16. Alien Water Kiss
17. Sisters
18. Love Secrets
19. Stevie's Spanking (Frank Zappa cover)
20. Racing the World
Encore:
21. Fire Garden Suite IV - Taurus Bulba
Saw a number of friends from the local music scene there, all of whom were completely blown away, just as I was. I took Jr. with me. His first real exposure to Steve Vai and my first time seeing him live. Vai is a very good showman/entertainer. He doesn't just stand in one place and play. He's moving around, he's doing all kinds of odd shit with his guitar, he's trying to make an experience out of it for the fans. Very cool.
The ONLY gripe I have is that we were on Dave Weiner's side of the stage and despite the fact that his amps sat way back on the stage, when he started playing, it was damn near all you could hear. WAY too loud on stage. There were times, I actually couldn't hear Vai's guitar (his amps were center stage in front of the drum riser). Being in the second row, Vai's amps didn't have the room to spread out to where we were sitting. Had we been further back, we probably could've heard him better. No matter, we heard most of it, and it was just absolutely out of this world.