‘Axe’ quintet shreds Palace stage ▶ Jim Shahen is a frequent contributor to the Times Union.
What’s better than seeing one virtuoso guitar player in a live concert? Seeing five virtuoso guitar players in one night. At least that’s Steve Vai’s reasoning. He recruited shredmaster Yngwie Malmsteen, Black Label Society’s Zakk Wylde, Nuno Bettencourt of Extreme and prog-metal wizard Tosin Abase for a supergroup called Generation Axe.
On Thursday night, Generation Axe came to the Palace Theatre, primed to display the stunning technical prowess of these guitarists individually and in various collaborative formats. And over the course of a nearly four-hour set, Generation Axe delivered exactly that.
The show opened with all five guitarists and a multitalented band consisting of bass, drums and keyboards on stage for an extended take of “Hocus Pocus” by Dutch prog rockers Focus. Each guitarist received time for two solos of moderate length that served to establish his individual style.
Abase followed with a brief set. The combination of his lower-octave tuning and finger-picking style presented the funkiest playing all evening. The only knock on the 35-year-old Abase is that he offered little stage presence, causing him to be the forgotten man in a group of more famous, older and more theatrical guitar heroes.
During Abase’s last song, “Physical Education,” he was joined by Bettencourt, and the two exchanged leads. This led to a fun Bettencourt set. Joking that he was recruited by Vai to “dummy it down” for everyone, Bettencourt started with a lively performance of Extreme’s “Get the Funk Out.” Tossing out selfdeprecating jokes and using his bonafides as a pop-and-funk metal guitarist as a springboard for some inventive soloing, Bettencourt was one of the most entertaining and diversely talented in the quintet.
Wylde joined Bettencourt for a powerhouse Southern blues cover of
Citizen Cope’s “Sideways” and then proceeded to tear the house down. In between playfully berating the audience to get up and have fun, Wylde sang and unloaded a pair 20-minute Black Sabbath covers, “Into the Void” and “War Pigs.” During both, Wylde left the stage to walk the aisles of the theater and even upstairs to the balcony to solo mercilessly.
The decision to leave the stage and engage the crowd by roaming was a savvy one that indicated Wylde understands musical theater.
Watching someone stand in place for 40 minutes, even for relentless riffing and incendiary solos, can get monotonous. By exploring the Palace, Wylde had fans constantly moving around, looking to see where he’d be next. Combine that with playing solos behind his head, using his teeth to play and the barrage of fist-pumps and headbanging, Wylde cut a gloriously over-the-top figure who had most people standing and cheering.
During his last song, Wylde was joined by Bettencourt and Vai. For about half an hour, Vai did his mystical, quintessentially Vai blend of experimental rock and industrial metal. Bettencourt, Wylde and Abasi appeared for a bruising cover of Edgar Winter’s “Frankenstein.”
Everyone then left the stage and Vai introduced Yngwie Malmsteen, who looked like he had been frozen in time in 1987 and thawed out mere moments before to offer a set of speed metal straight out of the Reagan era. That’s not to say it was bad; Malmsteen’s ability level is staggering, but his nonstop shredding to the tune of classical compositions grew tiresome well before his 47 minutes ran up.
In an evening that celebrates the selfaggrandizing nature of being a phenomenal lead guitarist, Malmsteen’s was the most so. He only had one collaboration, a duet on “Black Cat” with Vai. When his set ended, Vai gave a brief speech on how influential and brilliant Malmsteen is as an artist.
The show ended with all five guitarists out for a pair of tunes. First was an instrumental rendition of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” with Freddie Mercury’s vocal melodies serving as the template for the solos. Last was a cover of Deep Purple’s “Burn.” Malmsteen sang lead vocals, shredded a solo and then left the stage while everyone else ripped it up. It made for a solid end to a very long evening of guitar wizardry.