Vai gig last night.

Well, last night I had one of the most powerful and surreal experiences of my young life. Me and the lads all went up yesterday morning to Dublin to go see Vai's gig in Vicar St. We went and checked in to our hotel at about half in the afternoon, got all our stuff sorted and headed out to Vicar St. From about half past two till seven we waited to get in, and boy was it worth the wait.

When we got in, we were right up the front, with an excellent veiw of everything. Eric Sardinas opened and did a few great numbers before Steve and the Breed came on. Straight away, we knew why we had came. Steve's bandmates came out first, playing a couple of nice licks to introduce themselves. Then Steve come onto stage with his double neck mirror Jem, and then..........wow. The show started incredibly.

The show was just exceptional, and the tracklist, though I can't remember the order it all came in was very well picked. There was a great acoustic set in there aswell.

Then came something I will never forget, for as long as I live. Steve walks up to the mic holding Flo, and Tony MacAlpine plays the first chord of Whispering a Prayer. The crowd cheered solidly for what was easily five minutes. After which time Steve managed to introduce the song. He started playing. It was the most perfect rendition of any song ever, and I believe I was closer to heaven during those minutes than I ever have been. And I wasn't the only one. Every soul in that venue was lifted, nobody spoke, and tears came to the eyes of many. The atmosphere in that venue was indescribable. Steve seemed to be channeling something powerful, something elemental in his playing, and there was not one person in the hall who could not also feel it. When the song ended, the cheer just went on and on.

After the gig ended at midnight, we waited around to try to meet Steve. We had to wait quite a while. First we met Tony MacAlpine, and we got signitures and pictures with him. Second Billy Sheehan came out, and got signitures and pictures aswell, but also I got to put him onto my friend who decided not to wait. Then Jeremy Collson came out and we got signitures aswell.

Then we waited a bit more, and Steve himself walks out. I get talking to him and give him printouts of the Jems I have designed and he was really impressed. I then got pictures and signitures, the most important of which was on the truss cover of my Jem which I brought with me (it sort of smeared a bit, but I don't care). My friends weren't willing to wait for Dave Weiner, and I wasn't willing to stand around alone in a city I know nothing about, so we went back to the hotel. But I did want to meet Dave.

When I woke up, I thought it was all a beautiful dream, until I realised where I was. It wasn't a dream. It happened. And I'm the one that finds it hardest to believe.