Steve Vai with the Noord Nederlands Orkest (or North Netherlands Orchestra as they call themselves in English). Holy shit.
Before Vai got on stage (he was just a part of the evening, it wasn't all about him) the orchestra performed the prelude of Wagner's Tristan & Isolde, which was beautiful.
Then they performed a new piece by Korean composer Ji Youn Kang... Which was a bit meh in my opinion. It was centered around a recorder with lots of delay.

But anyway, Vai's pieces were absolutely astonishing. First up was Vai's The Middle of Everywhere, which they also played in 2011 (I was there, too! ). This is a piece without guitar, but it's still great and very Vai.
Then The Middle of Everywhere Part II: The Still Small Voice. In that piece Vai plays a single note and using a sustainer he keeps it going for 12 minutes. The orchestra plays around it but also keeps following the note.
But then the best part for me... The full Fire Garden Suite performed by Vai & the orchestra. Wow. Anyone who knows that piece knows it's always been meant to be played with an orchestra and I'll tell you, it sounded amazing. Highlight was the super-rare sitar-guitar that he used. Woah, that thing sounds phenomenal.
Vai posted on his FB page "Hey Folks, I'm in Holland rehearsing with the NNO. We are performing the entire Fire Garden Suite and it's just colossal. I believe I will get a great recording of it.
Hmmm, maybe the next record?". I'm glad they recorded at least the FGS as the other pieces back in 2011 and 2010 were great as well and didn't get recorded.

tl;dr: Vai + orchestra, played full Fire Garden Suite, it was amazing. Shitty pictures I took with my phone are in the spoiler.

Spoiler: show

His setup before the show started.

Sustaining one note for 12 minutes.

The wonderful sitar-guitar for the FGS.

Taurus Bulba on Flo III!

EDIT: Oh hey look, someone posted a video on Youtube. Sitar-guitar at 5:30, Taurus Bulba at 14:40.
[youtube]JVExRsJtYro[/youtube]

Went to see Rush last night.
Do I even need to explain? Holy shit.

[swervedriver]

Went to see Rush last night.
Do I even need to explain? Holy shit.

So much Power Windows in that set too. Loved every second of it.

Yesterday Stratovarius, Opeth and Nightwish at Sauna Open Air. Opeth was real winner here, although set was bit short. Also it was nice to see Nightwish live with Floor, hopefully they sign her as permanent singer.

Cattle Decapitation; just got home the show. The played an excellent set, despite it being too short for my liking (another band was headlining). Still, it was their first time playing Melbourne and they gave it their all. Highlights were Forced Gender Reassignment, Testicular Manslaughter and Kingdom of the Tyrants.
I have to give credit to the supports. King Parrot put on an amazing show, even though their singer Youngy has the flu; didn't stop him from plowing through the crowd every five seconds. Internal Nightmare started just as people were pouring in (due to the venue's flub more than anything) and put on tight set. There was another band, Aversion's Crown, who did nothing for me, though (but I don't like deathcore).
At time of writing the headliners Thy Art Is Murder should be finishing up; they are also deathcore and in my view overrated, which is why I left after Cattle finished. A few people did, actually. There you have it.

The Omega Experiment in Baarlo yesterday, at ProgPower Europe. Pim and Geert were there, too.
Their performance was absolutely great! And they're a bunch of good guys. Nice to meet them and nice to see Pim and Geert again - it's almost been a year since Retinal Circus after all.

Not my video, but here's Furor and Gift:
[youtube]i8AXJKtKfkE[/youtube]

[swervedriver]

^ Yup, that was a good night. Surprised you stayed until the end too, that couldn't have a been a long night's sleep for you.

Three and half hours of sleep, Pom. That's less than my total time spent traveling to and from the venue Worth it, though.

[JuZ]

That would've been fun.

Well done Dan!

I was so jelly, I'm not back in NL until Christmas. Gutted!

Turisas last night. I would say it was complete garbage but that's probably swayed by the fact that I wasn't in the mood.

Turisas last night. I would say it was complete garbage but that's probably swayed by the fact that I wasn't in the mood.

That's too bad. They used to be so good up until the third album.

To be fair, they were probably really good but it's not my kind of thing really.

I just got home from seeing

I just got home from seeing