Steve Vai: An Exercise in Laser Beams

Steve Vai is a man not many of you should care about. He’s a guitarist’s guitarist, which means he’s a slash wizard who can out-shred the fuck out of 99% of musicians on the planet, but fills most listeners with nothing but pyrotechnic dread; his biggest group of fans are guys who still blast the first few David Lee Roth albums, and while I can’t fault them, it’s not really my bag. What is the value of these so-called “guitar geniuses” who are incredibly proficient at their instrument but can’t make an album that interests anyone? It’s not as simple as saying they suck just because they can only shred… but what’s the point? A question for another day.

Anyways, the reason you are skipping to the three minute mark of this video (THE THREE MINUTE MARK, 3:00, Youtube’s time stamp won’t work with embedding) is because Mr. Vai is playing some concert decked out in Splinter Cell headgear with some kind of Mandarin ring getup on his hand when the lights go off in the arena and his body comes alive. Notice the LEDs on his guitar? How they light up his fret board so he can see them in the dark? That is nothing compared to his hand: HIS HAND EMITS LASERS. Check it out for yourself. Every ring seems to be a laser pointer, so that when he shreds, lasers shoot out of his fingers and shine wildly.

Vai is probably not an idiot. He knows who this appeals to: Thirteen-year olds who are discovering Led Zeppelin for the first time and think that technically skilled rock is the best kind of rock. For that reasons, playing with goddamn lasers on his hands is a brilliant marketing move. On the other hand, maybe he just thinks lasers are awesome. This is also true!

My point: If you are going to play guitar, you should consider wearing lasers on your hands. Do I really need to deconstruct this? Do I really need to snark about this? Maybe you will read this and give me an F for effort. However, the man is playing with lasers on his hands. Deconstruct that, Einstein.