Prior to beginning a tour, especially one as populated as this, it’s customary to rehearse. Not mandatory but it can’t hurt. Here we are at the Micheal Fowler Centre in Wellington, NZ, filling in the blanks, crossing the Ts and dotting the Is.
backstage the local crew gets comfortable
The local crew have their mascot.
local suppliers supply us with backline equipment.
Self-deprecating humor is the norm here.
problem solving
(L to R) Jeff Campitelli, Jose Baraquio (Jeff’s drum tech) and an unnamed person confer around the laptop responsible for triggering the samples in “Flying in a Blue Dream”.
A Fender Precision and a whole lot of Ampeg SVT: everything I need
If there is a speedier road to musical happiness I have yet to see it.
it takes a lot of wires to make it go
Seriously, how do they keep track of this?
he plays his own brand!
Steve Lukather has guitars with his nickname on the headstock. That is so cool.
Joe uses special exercises to warm up his fingers
You’d think by now he’d have figured how to work with the camera.
The enigmatic green tape X
This is Steve Vai’s spot on the stage.
(from L to R) Steve Lukather, Joe Satriani and Steve Vai
The three of the G3 work out their parts.
(from L to R) Mike Keneally, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Steve Lukather
But when a fourth guitarist joins all hell breaks loose.
The rehearsal is a success, though not without some technical hiccups. Steve Lukather’s high tech switching pedal board goes down and he’s changed over to simply using a few pedals with audio cables connecting them together, like in the old days. Also, the laptop controlling the aforementioned samples is not delivering the goods. It may be a piece of outboard equipment or something more sinister within the computer itself. We’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out whether we can play “Flying in a Blue Dream.”
