I posted this about a year ago under a thread I called "Worst Concert Experience Ever" and I thought I'd repost since my worst concert of all time happened to be a G3 show in Dallas Texas
This would be the first version of G3 with Eric Johnson sammiched between Vai and Satch. As an aside, a very young Kenny Wayne Sheppard opened, but I digress. It was sometime in the summer - I don't remember the exact date but it was BLAZING HOT. Along with a buddy, we get there early as it's a general admission show. As we pull up to the "arena", we discover it's really a tin shack, complete with a stench that would kill a mule. So, here we are, sun blazing down on us, waiting outside until they opened the doors.
We probably only stood out there for an hour but it seemed like days. When we finally did get in, I noticed that the surrounding air inside was not appreciably cooler that the surface of the sun. While there was "air conditioning", it was quite ineffective as it was one unit, hanging from the tin roof, howling as it was blowing lukewarm air. No big deal, I've been to hot concerts before - this will be no problemo! WRONG! I didn't factor in the following:
1. Festival Seating - I was crushed against several other people as we were all having our own little "sweat contest"
2. Drip, Drip, Drip - Unfortunately, your hero(that would be me) was standing directly underneath the air conditioner unit and it was driping warm water on me the entire show.
3. A shockingly uninspired Eric Johnson - I had seen Satriani several times but I was really there to see EJ. Much to my chagrin, he put on a very workmanlike performance that was the exact opposite of the high energy Vai and Satch were throwing down.
Vai was good, but the dismal showing of EJ killed the show. Satch didn't do anything different from when I had seen him before.
I'm sure that EJ's performance was due to the poor fit of his style with Vai and Satch, but it killed the night. So, in short, I was out $40.00, had watched my skin melt, had a piss-warm shower dripping on me all night, and seen a pretty average show.:wutblau:
