Customer Reviews

Steve Vai - Alien Love Secrets

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is essentially the "Alien Love Secrets" album, which was recorded around 1994, with Steve Vai and his group lip/finger synching along with the music. Mr. Vai accurately and quite interestingly synchs along, as precisely as you'd expect from someone of his perfectionist qualities. Needless to say, while it's not an authentic performance of the songs, but rather a recording of the guys synching along with a prior recording, it's the next best thing.
Not much else to comment on, as far as the performance is concerned. It takes place on one set, with Steve changing suits/skin colors (!!) between several of the tracks. His children even show up on "Ya Yo Gakk" and do silly things for the camera. The video transfer is pristine, and I have absolutely no qualms with it.
Now, the extras. The commentary track with Mr. Steve Vai is quite entertaining, although there are dead points here and there where he gets caught up in the movie and doesn't say much. His stories and description of things are always good....you get the feeling that he's sitting there, talking to you specifically about the songs. There are also alternate angles for a couple of tracks, which is nice, but probably won't be accessed more than once or twice. A featurette made as a promotion for his 1996 Epic Records recording, "Fire Garden", lasts about roughly 7-8 minutes, and is fun to watch. A discography, pictures, and other small things round it all up.
Although released pretty early on in the life of DVD technology, it remains one of the more fascinating and worth-while purchases of the musically-related DVD's that have been released up to this point in time. Steve Vai fans, guitar fans....I can't imagine you turning this one away.

If you are Steve Vai fan or high quality guitar music lover, get this DVD as you can watch Steve playing (This not a Live Show), Steve even though not playing in real time, faitfully follows his solo lines, Great music but bad cameraman, constant moving camera gets bit annoying after awhile. But the music is fantastic.

ive watched the vhs version so many times now and still cant see that this was not a live show. (was it a live show? did steve actually split into 3 versions of himself on one of the songs?).
the sound quality is superb and the choreography is perfectly matched with the songs.
(i could do without the little kid playing drums though....)

It was only a matter of days after seeing Steve Vai play live on the most recent G3 tour with Joe Satriani and John Petrucci that I decided to purchase this disk. There is nothing more exciting than seeing Vai play live, he is one of the most captivating performers of all time.

That being said, you can imagine my disappointment when, during the first song, I realized that this is a collection of music videos and not live performances. I kept trying to tell myself at least I could still watch Steve's showmanship, but that thought went away every time I saw the drummer tap another crash cymbal.

I know millions of people watch MTV to see their favorite artist pantomime their songs, but it just seems wrong to watch Vai do that.

I'm not sorry I bought it; I'm happy to have it in my collection. I just won't be watching it much.

Go through the discography screen by screen, and every time you see a cover of one of his records, press the "Arrow Up" key followed by the "Enter" key. This will bring up images of Steve, his band or even alternative cover artworks for the respective albums.

If you like Vai it is well worth the money even with the poor quality of the video transfer. Basically a collection of performance videos for all the songs. DVD also contains an audio track with Steve explaining each of the songs (inspirations, etc.) along with some other cool features. I just wish they would have spent a little more time and money to get a killer video track to go along with the killer audio.

I don't know what Steve Vai was thinking with this collection of video performances of each of the songs from Alien Love Secrets. Tthe album is one of my favorites, possibly his best but this video is a huge disappointment. The picture quality is grainy at best and looks like an old seventies porn film. Steve Vai and the band wear the blue/silver make-up he wears on the cover of the album. They looked silly. The lighting and sets are dismal. There isn't a set to speak of they just perform in front of black cloth backgrounds.

I saw the G3 concert after Eric Johnson left and Kenny Wayne Sheppard had joined them. Steve was by far the most dynamic on stage and this video captures that which is a plus, although some of the faces he makes are pretty goofy. The performances are entertaining though.

The extras weren't bad and the sound quality was as good as the CD. The band is obviously playing to dubbed music which was really distracting and felt a little phony, but Steve uses quit a few instruments and over dubs on the albums so it's probably hard to perform the songs live.

This isn't a bad DVD but it isn't up to Steve Vai's usually perfectionist standards. I would only recommend it to Steve Vai fans who want a complete collection. I'm looking forward to seeing something with better production qualities.

Wow! I watch this video more than any other I have of Steve Vai.
Alien Love Secrets

I don't understand the guy that posts a 3 stars saying he is disappointed in the DVD. To balance his critique, I thought I'd share my view of it.

Steve is so on-point with his fingering, you will be hard-pressed to say he's not playing live; certainly only the most technical of guitarists can tell. The only beef I have there is that many of the licks I'd like to see him play are not always visible in at least one of the two video angles. But, that would be true of a REAL live performance as well; maybe even MORE so.

After reading this critique, I watched the drummer and bassist. They are on-point, too. Only a drummer or bassist, respectively, may find any discrepancy worth noting between the recorded tracks and their performance. None of the video performance is lacking to the point of distraction.

The reason I like this DVD so much is Vai is TOTALLY free to convey the mood of the songs with his expressions, his movements, his dancing, every aspect of these songs. Also, all of the licks are clean only as a studio can render them. The only thing I didn't like was knowing he did not use the exact guitars he played for each song in the studio in this video. I like visually equating the guitar with the sound I'm hearing.

Now, I'm no metalist ... my favorite was always Ernie Isley of The Isley Brothers. But, Steve Vai is so remarkable a player, I can't help but get into him, albeit, not so much the thrash as the more melodic and bluesey numbers he performs. I am suitably impressed by the metal virtuosity. However, my favorite tracks on this DVD/CD, in approximate order, are:

1. Boy From Seattle

I LOVE this piece! To me, the epitome of rhythm/lead comping throughout, then a straight-up pop-blues solo, moving into a melodic distorted/delayed pyro-solo, and wrapping up with a beautiful chord-laced ending. I just can't get enough of it!

2. Die to Live

A musical piece that makes the phrase "music to my ears" have poetic meaning! The other track I simply can't get enough! Though the whole thing uses distortion, the combination of lead resolving into rhythmic chords at just the right times makes my skin dance and my fingers roil! It's hard not to move and sway to this song as you imagine playing it as Steve does, with such intense feeling. This is another example of where his expressiveness takes the songs he plays to additional heights!

3. Tender Surrender

I know others probably like this song better than my first two choices, and understandably so! The Benson-style octave phrasing is off the chain! He finger-picks and swells each riff so perfectly and it is amazing! The bridge is a wonderful departure from the basic melody (as with Die to Live) and brings you back around to the main cliche in a very satisfying way. His ending is so apt to the title of the song and I can imagine the emotional collapse of two lovers at the end of having drunk deeply from each others ecstasy. Steve is phenomenal on this piece!

4. Bad Horsie

What can I say?! Metal for real, but funky and melodic, still. This has got to be a pick-squeal standard, here. The horse whinnying, the locomotive chugging along ... Steve reproduces it all in perfect rhythm. Truly amazing!

I am convinced and converted! Steve Vai will go down as one of the greatest guitarists of all time! I can't help but mention one other song that is a top pick I wish were in this collection: 'For the Love of God'. I know it's not included here, but this song is just as satisfying to me as the above four I've critiqued.

Many metalists will enjoy the other songs more, I'm sure. And I am duly impressed with Steve's performance on songs like Juice and Kill the Guy with the Ball/The God Eaters. Ya-Yo Gakk was a fun insert based on how he created it, but I don't listen to those over and over as I do the four I mentioned.

This CD and DVD are MUST-HAVES. I've bought them both for myself and even for a friend or two. TOTALLY AWESOME!!!

Is Steve Vai really an 'Alien' ?? ..He has to be,he's got about 40 hr days!!ha! Only Steve would take time to make this studio video FOR GUITAR PLAYERS!!! Alot of hand shots & check out the 'now u see it, now u don't' slide trick(BAD HORSIE). When I'm in a rut practicing & I need a pick-me-up - I throw this in & STEVE KICKS IT OUT!

I can't complain about this one. Why? Because of how cheap it is. The audio is great and the video (something no CD has) gives you the chance to see Steve at work. So what if he's only guitar-synching.