Guitar maestro holds court
Fans got their fill of ‘Malm-steam’ as the 55-year-old rock guitarist delivered a solid gut punch of neo-classical heavy metal tunes, writes Izwan Ismail
GUITAR god Yngwie Malmsteen finally made his maiden performance in Kuala Lumpur last Saturday to the delight of a few thousands of his loyal supporters who had been waiting to see him perform live for the past decades.
The Swedish maestro got his shredding gears on at about 9.15pm in the two-tiered Wawasan Hall at Menara PGRM in Cheras.
Emerging from a cloud of visual effects smoke with all the spotlights focused on him, Malmsteen aptly kicked off the concert with his opening number from his 1998
Odyssey album, Rising Force.
The fast-paced 1980s heavy metal track with vocals by the band’s keyboardist definitely got the audience in the mood.
For those who are not familiar with Malmsteen’s brand of music, the six-string executioner is known for his revolutionary guitar style which combines elements of classical music by renowned composers like Bach, Paganini and Vivaldi, with the speed, shredding, licks and big volume of heavy metal.
Speaking of volume, the 40 towering Marshall amps, which formed the background of Malmsteen’s stage, delivered a solid punch of unadulterated heavy metal sound.
The Wawasan Hall’s good acoustics was certainly an added bonus to the good sound system.
After Rising Force, Malmsteen greeted the audience and thanked them for being a sporting crowd. He then proceeded to dazzle with more of his hard-hitting numbers.
Despite being 55, the guitar maestro’s performance was energetic. Lightning fast picking and tight shredding on his trusted axe, he also prowled the stage from one end to the other.
Once in a while, he also jumped to add to the visual dynamics of the show.
Surprisingly, he looked much slimmer in real life and was very generous with throwing his guitar picks to the audience as well.
Malmsteen didn’t communicate much but instead let his fingers do the talking.
It was a conversation that easily got the audience, who were mostly in their late 30s to 50s, stimulated and clapping to his various virtuosic antics.
His back-up band, which comprised keyboardist/back-up vocalist (Nick Marinovich), bassist (Emilio Martinez Jr) and drummer (Brian Wilson), was active in communicating with the appreciative fans.
The master guitarist is well known for his commanding stage presence and a desire for the spotlight. This would explain why his accompanying band was positioned to the left of the stage. But the maestro with humongous talent also delivered with gusto what was expected of him.
There was so much soul and life to the melodies that came out from his signature Fender Stratocaster guitar, as he effortlessly make it sing, scream and cry.
Malmsteen played from his heart and it was palpable, especially on ultra melodious tunes like Far Beyond The Sun, Black Star, Icarus Dream Suite Op 4, Adagio and Arpeggios From Hell.
He also showcased his vocal chords by singing on some tunes, with the help of the keyboardist.
To be honest, Malmsteen’s vocals fell short compared to his previous lead singer Joe Lynn Turner but that was to be expected.
The fans didn’t really care about that as they were there to see him flexing his musical muscles and unbridled melodious might on his Fender.
Another plus point was that 70 per cent of his hit numbers were pure instrumental music bliss. So the fans who came for the guitar magic definitely enjoyed the entertaining, jaw-dropping ride.
A day earlier at his Press conference, Malmsteen had said that he would be performing differently every time he has shows, changing and tweaking his compositions on the spot. This was something which he termed as “playing dangerously”.
He showcased that aspect on some of his tunes that night but didn’t go overboard with it.
Bottomline, the concert was a shredtastic affair which lasted close to two hours with the legendary Malmsteen dishing out two dozen sonically-solid songs in total.