Neo-classical guitar god Yngwie Malmsteen kicked off his fall tour at Irving Plaza last night, playing to hundreds of enthralled New Yorkers filling the small ballroom.
The Swedish Malmsteen is one of the more niche musicians in the heavy metal world, with a 1,000 notes-per-second style of shredding that has made him synonymous with electric guitar mastery. Fans crowded the stage to get a closer look as the axeman took the stage with a flourish, playing with sweeping, almost effortless motions that shrieked throughout the venue.
Fronting Malmsteen’s band is Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens, one of the most in-demand vocalists for tributes like Hail! and Dio Disciples, reaching back from his time singing in Judas Priest (read San Antonio Metal Examiner Jay Nanda’s recent interview with Ripper here). Ripper was warm and friendly with the crowd, an interesting contrast to the notoriously haughty reputation Malmsteen has earned over the years, but from the “Yngwie F*cking Malmsteen” t-shirts to fans screaming his name between every song, there was no doubt whose show it was.
The group, collectively known as Rising Force, brought a varied setlist with them, first thrashing through a few popular singles before Ripper left the stage and Yngwie took the first of several instrumental breaks. The guitarist’s ‘neo-classical’ style is really stunning to witness in person, and even a few technical difficulties couldn’t overshadow his extraordinary talents. Tearing through pieces of classical music and ripping through arpeggios, Malmsteen’s guitar seemed to be just an extension of his hands and fingers, a living, breathing appendage blasting out raw shreddage.
Years of performing have also clearly taught Yngwie some stage tricks, as he tossed his guitar about, swung it over his shoulders, and even threw it high in the air then caught it, always picking the melody right back up the second his fingers touched the fretboard. He frequently fell to his knees while playing some of the highest scales, which occasionally were bent to such a high pitch that Irving Plaza’s sound system simply couldn’t amplify it.
While most of the “radio” rock songs featuring Ripper trended towards power metal, with upbeat choruses and thundering power chords, perhaps the most impressive part of the night was a brief foray into the blues, which saw Malmsteen take the microphone for vocals as well. While hard rock groups like Led Zeppelin and even classic bluesmen like Buddy Guy make ample use of both blues riffs and distorted guitars in their music, this Examiner has never experienced the pentatonic scale played with such a brutal and frenetic force before, and like everything else last night, it spoke to the immense talent the Swedish guitarist injects into every note he plays.
As the night wound up, Malmsteen seemed to grow more and more intense, at one point even ripping out the bottom string of his guitar in a moment of passion, then grinding the fretboard against one of the dozens of amplifiers and ampheads filling the stage until raw feedback blasted back at him. That ferocious energy was then opposed by a touching rendition of Heaven Tonight, which saw the entire venue singing along to the power ballad.
Despite an advertised end time of 10:30, the band played almost nonstop til 11pm, giving fans a spectacular two hour set that must have satisfied even the most die hard Malmsteen devotees. Fans exited Irving Plaza with an air of salvation, and some of the louder ones could be heard imitating Yngwie’s high pitched squeals and guitar tapping all the way down to Union Square.
True guitar virtuosos are far and few between, and New Yorkers have gotten lucky with the incomparable Buckethead back in August (my review here) and now Malmsteen. Next up is the yet-to-be-rescheduled Guitar Heros Tour featuring Michael Schenker, Uli Jon Roth, and Leslie West, who is currently recovering from amputation surgery but still seems determined to perform professionally.
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