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To keep it short : it was awesome, I loved every moment of it.
If you want to read a bit more ....
"A Masterclass" quite clearly indicates that this is a place where you can learn something. Being an enthusiast on the guitar, for sure I learned a lot from Steve during this event, but even though it may not have been Steve's original intention, for me the experience of meeting my most favourite guitarist was far more significant than the one of the student taking a lesson from a master-teacher. And remembering the faces of my fellow 'students', I suspect this may have been the case not just for me...
It's one of these rare occasions, when the men's toilet has a long queue, and the ladie's is empty. It's a men's world around Steve Vai's guitar playing, and the few women around are the ones working at the venue, or the beloveds at the side of a potential shredder.
Driving there, I had lost the way to the place completely, due to an unforeseen road-deviation, finding myself making a U-turn in ... Germany (which was - only - 11km out of direction). Cursing myself for not borrowing my sister's GPS, and having been too confident that I would find it easily with the info of the Google Maps route planner.
But even so, I was more than 1 hour too early, and met a guy who just came to hang around, hoping to see Steve by chance, because he didn't have enough money to pay the ticket. And we did see him from the distance through the window, doing soundcheck.
Once everybody had entered and was seated properly, we were all eager and ready to start.
"All the way from L.A., mr. Steve Vai !"
We all applaused loudly and enthusiastically, for quite a while, actually pretty long, just to find that Steve ... didn't show up. A bit puzzled we started to laugh.
"OK, one more try : All the way from L.A., mr. Steve Vai !"
And this time the guitar god came over, walking slowly and relaxedly, with a big smile on his face, receiving our warm welcome.
"It happened to me several times already", Steve said, "before giving a live concert, I find myself in the toilet, and hear my name being announced, followed by a loud crowd, and I go "Doh !!!". Sorry guys for being late."
It was such a funny and human opening, and the tone for the evening was set : an intimate and personal meeting with a giant guitarist who can play like an alien, but at the same time is as human as we all are.
Steve started of with "The crying machine", and it took just a few bars for my eyes to be filled with tears of joy. I felt so blessed to sit just a few meters away from Steve while he was playing the guitar in his mesmerizing way.
No matter what would follow, just after this one tune, the evening was already a big success to me, but there was a lot more to come.
I have to admit that I was not really listening to Steve as a student should, even though I was very attentive for the full 3 hours. For me it was more like a satsang, the pure bliss of sitting in the presence of the master.
Nevertheless, when Steve spoke about personal difficulties that he had experienced while growing and evolving as a guitarist, I could relate very well to what he was saying, and his advice on how to deal with it was golden.
In between the topics, Steve would play some pieces over a backing track, and for me this still was the best part, 'cause that's what I love the most : being carried away in an alien world by watching and hearing Steve play. "Building the Church" was awesome and included an improvised solo. And it was very touching to hear Steve explain what went wrong for him in this particular performance, and how he worked himself out of it, thus illustrating the 'theory' he had just talked about.
For the last song Steve let the audience do a request. I would have loved to see him play "Lotus Feet", but the majority was asking "For the Love of God", which turned out to move me again to tears of joy.
The official part ended with a jam session in which Steve traded solo's with 5 participants, and a JEM 555 guitar was given to a lucky winner.
On the way out Steve took place on the shop's counter, to meet and greet everyone of us on our way out, signing our guitars, CD's, DVD's and what not.
Some people had a short chat with him, but when it was my turn, I was still in a space of gratitude, so all I could say to him was "I am speechless. Thank you for the music, it is very important to me." One of the beautiful qualities of Steve Vai is that he can give a lot, but he can also receive, and when he just looked me in the eyes I could feel that he really received my gratitude, without words. Such a precious moment. Then he loosened up my somewhat 'serious' space and seeing that I was wearing a Vai-T-Shirt of the 2005 Real Illusions tour, he laughed and said "Thanks for buying my T-shirt". We both laughed, I put my arm around his shoulder and a fellow fan took our foto.
Later I was happy to see that they had let in the guy who I had met at soundcheck time, and he too got the desired signatures and snapshots.
Filled with joy I drove back home, still getting lost a bit in the deviated roads, but who cares, man, this was Steve Vai !!!
Being a fan is extremely irrational and to outsiders it probably looks crazy and unrealistic. But it's so much fun and it gives so much joy that it all doesn't matter. It's the celebration of life. So if you are a fan too, and you ever get the chance to meet your idol, go for it ! It's worth all the effort, the money, the difficulties. It's one of the great experiences that life has to offer, so don't let this chance go by.
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