(Top40 Charts/ Favored Nations Entertainment) - Triple GRAMMY Award winning guitarist Steve Vai's new concert film WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: LIVE IN MINNEAPOLIS (WTWTA), just made a No 4 debut on Billboard Magazine's Top
Music DVD Chart. The film, released by Vai's record company Favored Nations Entertainment, hit retail
September 29 (a companion live audio CD came out that day as well). The Blu-ray edition will be in-stores November 10, and an online preview is available at: www.vai.com/wildthings.
WTWTA was filmed and recorded at the historic State Theatre in Minneapolis, MN before a sold-out crowd during Vai's acclaimed 2007 String Theories World Tour. Guitar legend Vai chose the State Theatre for its lush acoustics and equally inspiring interior - his unprecedented guitar wizardry amazes throughout the film, as do the talents of the stellar band, an ace group of players Vai put together and called String Theories.
In Modern Guitars Magazine, Tom Watson recalls the tour that spawned WTWTA: "The Sound Theories World Tour performance was a fiery re-interpretation of an excellent sampling from the Vai catalog," noting that the film features, "a set list of both well known and not so often performed pieces." The almost three-hour set showcases Vai's compositional skills as well as his guitar-shredding mastery, and the DVD's debut in the No 4 position has it besting Michael Jackson's Video Greatest Hits: History this week.
Vai's concert film WTWTA premiered at a benefit screening at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, CA on September 15. The event-and a silent auction with items donated from fellow artists including Slash, Tom Morello, and Iron Maiden-raised almost $50,000 for Hollywood Arts (www.hollywood-arts.org), an arts academy providing creative and commercial art instruction to homeless and at-risk youth.
Vai has been on the board of directors for the non-profit since 2007, and the night's big prize (which raised more than $18,000 via an eBay auction), was "The Ultimate Steve Vai Experience." It netted the winning bidder extraordinarily wild things including a private one-hour guitar lesson with Vai in their home, one of the artist's personal guitars, and a song written for the winner to be placed on iTunes as an exclusive, with all proceeds going to Hollywood Arts.
Steve Vai first stepped into the spotlight in 1980 as a guitarist in Frank Zappa's band. His indelible contribution to music came during his solo career, which includes combined sales of nearly six million albums over the last three decades-and more musical mojo than most could even dream of. 2010 will mark Vai's 30-year touring anniversary. Looking ahead, expect more, always amazing and even wilder things from this virtuoso artist.
For more information: www.vai.com or www.favorednations.com
