K’m-Pee-Du-Wee – Live In Poland

Performing in countries through Eastern Europe is an adventure. We usually travel over night to the next city after the previous gig. In this situation we were coming from a gig in Vilnius, Lithuania and driving overnight for a day off in Katowice Poland. The day after that we had a show scheduled for Zabrze, Poland.

The video goals on the Real Illusions tour (among some other colorful celluloid exploits) was to capture a unique kind of performance for each song on the Real Illusions CD. Since K’m-Pee-Du-Wee was already released on a G3 DVD from Japan, I wanted to offer a different type of performance video other than a live concert setting for that song. Never having been to Katowice Poland (oddly enough), I thought it would be a cool idea to just show up and set up a little trio combo somewhere outside of the hotel in the street, unannounced, and just jam on K’m-Pee.

The band and crew were real sports about it. Mikey Mesker shot some entertaining footage and although the equipment we used to perform with looked a little anemic, it was mic’ed properly and heavily EQ-ed so the sound we captured is actually pretty good.

We just jammed through the song a few times and I cut it together. I think it turned out charming with some striking moments. The citizens of downtown Katowice took very little interest in what we were doing.

DIDN’T THEY KNOW WHO WE WERE???? Maybe not.

The full 12 minute version of “K’m-Pee-Du-Wee – Live In Poland” will be available through the iTunes Music Store very soon. In the meantime, check out a teaser trailer on the official Steve Vai YouTube Channel!

We will also be making all of Steve’s official promo videos available through iTunes, along with select cuts from the Live At The Astoria London DVD, and all videos from the Alien Love Secrets DVD.