You have no idea what you're talking about and that's...ok.
I'll also assume that everybody here is fucking around and fully realize that Vai was being a nice humble guy and allowed that young wanker to have his spotlight. That guy was barely pulling off techniques that Vai invented 30 years ago. Vai is a smart good guy. Nothing good would come from Vai destroying him as a man.
Hence my assertion that he is a good sport. Of course he could have eviscerated that basement dweller in a manner that sucked the poor bastards will to live right out of his asshole. I have no doubt about that. I also really enjoyed watching that clip because if nothing else, it gave me much greater appreciation for Steve Vai the man.
He showed real graciousness in that clip that is exceptionally uncommon among high caliber musicians. I applaud him for that.
I still stand by my opinions on his playing. Astonishing skills producing offensively non-musical and tonally bankrupt noise.
It just isn't my thing. Not a shred fan. There are some rare exceptions, but for the most part, I'll take an emotive, melodic Gilmour type solo over a wank fest any time.
Really, none of the big name axe slingers do much for me. Vai, Satch , Battio, Bettencourt, Malmsteen... all crazy talented guys. All equally uninteresting. Eric Johnson is a guy that I assume is more or less in that group, but while I'm still not likely to found listening to any of his records, he at least manages to create "songs" with melodies and bridges and other key ingredients that qualify a piece as music.
If shredding were an Olympic Sport, Vai and his contemporaries would be Gold Metalists.
It isn't. They're not.
Instead, they are the Michael Bay of the guitar world. No story, no plot, just lots of mindless action sequences and blowing shit up.
