Steve Vai and Israeli guitar hero trade shop talk

July 3, 2009 - 9:02 AM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: coexistence, General, Music, Pop Culture 

With the media touting doomsday scenarios at every opportunity about a fracture between the Israeli government and US administration regarding the peace process, it’s nice to know Israelis and Americans can still make beautiful music together.

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Legendary American hard rock guitar virtuoso Steve Vai was in town this week, presenting his Alien Guitar Secrets masterclass to a Tel Aviv auditorium full of 1,500 adoring fans. While not my cup of musical tea, Vai, who in addition to an illustrious 20-year solo career, has played with everyone from Frank Zappa to David Lee Roth, was simply dazzling – both his guitar playing and his personality.

Accompanied by an Apple computer that spewed out pre-recorded backing tracks louder than Black Sabbath, the tall, lanky Vai simply wailed on his custom Ibanez axe. But the main part of the three and a half hour evening was Vai simply sitting and talking – telling stories about his childhood and career, fielding a multitude of questions from the audience, providing life philosophy on God, meditiation, goals as related to finding your inner ear to enable you to play guitar, if not like him, then at least like you, and simply providing a life-affiriming motivational pep talk to aspiring guitar players in the crowd. Vai was gregarious, self deprecating, funny, and wholly entertaining.

Sometimes he’d be talking about a certain style, technique or passage from one of his songs, and he’d smile and say, “wait, let me show you.” It was tres cool.

And he also talked about Israel, saying “People told me there’s fighting and tension and watch out. But I got here yesterday and my hosts graciously have taken me around Tel Aviv and we also drove to Jerusalem. And I have to say that this is simply a beautiful country. And you know what? I’m going to go back home and tell everyone! And next time, I’m coming back here with my band.”

To compensate for the lack of human collaboration, Vai and a half dozen lucky audience members (some handpicked by the promotor, some who won a lottery, and some Vai chose from the crowd) closed the evening by jamming on a guitar duel. Vai graciously toned down his prowess to let the local players show their stuff, but even he was dazzled by studio veteran Avi Singolda, who’s appeared on the albums of some of Israel’s top performers.

It was a rousing capping to a uniquely inspiring evening that will ‘vie’ as one of the most enjoyable ever spent in a Tel Aviv auditorium.

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Israelis go on tour

May 20, 2009 - 8:32 PM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Business, General, Music, Pop Culture, Travel 

Springsteen's just a short flight away for Israelis.

Springsteen's just a short flight away for Israelis.

There’s plenty of rock shows being imported here this summer, but nothing that you’d want to write home about: Appearances by Joe Jackson, Suzanne Vega, Steve Vai, Chris Cornell and Dream Theater, may satisfy some people, and Leonard Cohen in September will likely be a grand event. And we may even have Madonna to celebrate Yom Kippur with.

But when bona fide heavyweights like Springsteen, U2, The Killers, Coldplay and Pearl Jam are only a couple thousand miles away in Europe, it’s a little hard to get excited about our dubious offerings.

But thanks to a couple of Israeli entrepreneurial endeavors, getting to those superstars isn’t any more difficult than finding parking near Ramat Gan stadium. On.Tour, a Tel-Aviv based online rock & roll travel agency – and similar companies like Kavei Hofsha – provide Israeli music fans with package tours to the top festivals and shows in Europe – including airfare, hotel, transportation and, of course, the coveted tickets to the shows, even those that are listed as sold-out.

And it’s suprisingly affordable – not much more than the vacation without the concert tickets would be. A quick glance at the On.Tours homepage finds a generous offering of summer festivals, including this year’s Rock Werchter, featuring Coldplay, Metallica and The Killers; Denmark’s Roskild with Coldplay, Oasis and Slipknot; Germany’s Rock Im Park (RIP) featuring The Killers, The Kooks and Placebo; Istanbul’s questionably titled Rock & Coke, featuring Linkin Park, Nine Inch Nails and the Kaiser Chiefs; and some of the most popular attractions – the heavy metal festivals like Wacken 2009, The Ozora Festival and Hellfest. The average price for a package, including three or four nights’ accommodations, runs between NIS 4,000 and NIS 5,000.

“Pretty quickly, we learned that Israelis weren’t interested only in music festivals, but in concerts as well. There’s not a lot of top names coming here, and through us, you can go see just about any of the top names touring Europe,” Ido Mart, the company’s marketing director told me last week.

Indeed, the site offers packages for artists ranging from U2 and Springsteen to Britney Spears and Take That, all for prices similar to the festival tariff. According to Mart, On.Tours not only removes the hassle of arranging your own flights and accommodations, it also eases the stress of the biggest task of all – getting tickets to sold out shows.

Lianna Yedida, 25, who has traveled on three On.Tours packages, including two festivals in Europe and is signed up to see Radiohead this summer in Berlin, can’t praise the service too much.

“Everything was great, and of course, it’s easier than doing it yourself. They worry about everything,” she said, adding that the attention to detail was the biggest feature. According to Mart, those details include providing free transportation from the airport to the hotel and back again, and other amenities, like tips on after-show parties and access to them.

So, if you’re going to take a vacation outside of Israel anyway, why not make it a musical one?

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