I know it’s a bit late to blog about this but hey, it’s not like anyone cares, or that it matters, or both…
Ahem, anyway, so last Wednesday, I went off to Glasgow to see one of the most amazing guitar players of all time which also happens to have an ego the size of Siberia. Despite that, I am rather confident to say that Yngwie Malmsteen is probably the rock guitar equivalent of Ludwig v. Beethoven. So with that in mind you’d think one would have a “school boy” attitude going to a concert like that.
Well not quite. For a start, the man had no opening act, which is interesting since the concert basically started an hour and a half after the doors opened and as since I got there reasonably early, I managed to secure myself a nice (well sortof) wee spot on the front barrier… by one of the main woofers. Oh yes, I was reminded of my first Satriani concert in 1995 and sure enough the effect of my ears was pretty much the same.
It wasn’t such a big turnout as well, which made it kinda weird. I mean it’s Malmsteen, in one of the largest cities in the UK and I’m told it barely sold 600 tickets in a venue which in the downstairs area alone can happily accomodate 2,000… 😯 so big shock there. Nonetheless some kids did enjoy the show a lot. I was mostly mesmerised at how fast the man moves his fingers on the fretboard and goes through guitar picks. I swear, I’ve never seen that before, the roadie must have replaced the row of picks on the mike at least 5 or 6 times 😆 . He’d take a pick, play a few notes then throw it in the crowd, sometimes trying to kick it in the crowd (it worked once, other times it just looked silly 🙄 ). Still the kids loved it, one of them wasn’t even paying attention to the security guard who was pretty gruff and would just stare at the stage with his mouth open and finger pointing up just like you do when it rains and you haven’t had a drink for days. Well I guess it was raining picks… Some people wouldn’t even pay attention to what’s going on on stage if a pick happened to land in their vicinity and no one had caught it. In fact he threw that many, even I got one, despite not really caring either way, I just wanted to enjoy a good show. For the record the aforementioned guard was gathering the picks that didn’t quite make it to the crowd and every now and then would redistribute them to the front row. The guy next to me who I was chatting with before the show was given one but he’d already caught one so he gave it to me (thanks Neil 😉 ). It’s too thick for my taste anyway… 
So I dunno if I’m just getting old or if I’m having a detached view of the sort of attitude fans have at concerts like this but the general attitude rather amused me. Still it was a good show, even though I couldn’t sing most of his songs as I’m really just keen on the guitar parts, and anyway he didn’t play my favourite (Arpeggios from Hell)…
Now I can’t wait for Paul Gilbert in November… 😀