Guitar Gods feat. Yngwie Malmsteen at Skyway Theatre, Minneapolis (23 June 2014) concert review

The Latin saying “Veni Vidi Vici” that is attributed to a letter Julius Caesar sent to the Roman Senate, could also apply to The Guitar Gods tour that came to town this week at the Skyway Theatre in Minneapolis – they came, they saw, they conquered.



Guitar virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen headlined an evening of shredding licks, dramatic solos, and jaw-dropping fretwork, which included fellow “Gods” Gary Hoey and Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal. Unfortunately, scheduled fourth “God”, German ex-Scorpions guitarist Uli Jon Roth, had to pull out of the tour due to last-minute visa issues, but the Minneapolis show was filled in ably with Illinois guitarist TD Clark (with appropriate song, ‘Shreddtime Stories’) and the NYC-based Gary Douglas Band, who played a short set of blues-based rock.

Bumblefoot Setlist

Bumblefoot, who has done albums since the mid 90’s and now doubles as a Guns ‘n Roses guitarist, started the early evening off with solo songs like ‘Guitars Suck’, ‘Guitars Still Suck’, and the audience participatory ‘Objectify’, before ending with his own twisted version of ‘The Pink Panther Theme’ (which he released as a digital single in 2011).

Gary Hoey

Blues surf rock guitarist Gary Hoey followed, leaning on tracks from his most recent release, last year’s Deja Blues (Wazoo Music Group), including set opener, ‘Going Down’, the title track, and his version of blues classic, ‘Born Under a Bad Sign’; before ending with his biggest hit, a 1993 remake of Focus song, ‘Hocus Pocus’.



Lights dimmed, fog filled the stage and back wall of Marshall stacks, and the intro music was cue’d up as Yngwie Malmsteen and band (Ralph Ciavolino- bass, Mark Ellis- drums, Nick Marino- keyboards) took the stage to open with a blistering version of ‘Rising Force’, from his 1988 Odyssey album. From the beginning, it was clear that the now 50-year Malmsteen, has lost little of his blurring finger speed on the fret board, moving his hand up and down the guitar neck with relative ease.


‘Spellbound’, the title track from his 2012 album would follow, most of the predominantly male crowd clearly spellbound themselves, by the guitar theatrics they were baring witness to.  More classically influenced than his contemporaries, the Swedish-born Malmsteen has always shown a perfection and discipline to his soloing, and is able to move from delicate string work to full-on shredding, without noticeable effort.



Spellbound (self-released) is notable in that Malmsteen chose to sing all the songs himself on that album, as opposed to having others do the vocals, as had previously been the norm.

Yngwie Malmsteen

“The louder you get, the louder The Maestro gets!” keyboardist and evening MC, Marino goaded the crowd, with Malmsteen’s turned up guitar then drowning him out, to the crowd’s delight.  The 90 min. set proved to be a thorough retrospective of Malmsteen’s back catalogue, including the title track from 1994’s Seventh Sign and early classic, ‘Far Beyond the Sun’, which was part of a riffing medley.



A unique version of our National Anthem, as only Malmsteen could play it, was revelatory and impactful in its rendering, a mix of neo-classical and the Hendrix version. Malmsteen’s acoustic turns were no less impressive with his speed and he would dip into blues and more classical sounding selections as well, as the night continued.


80’s rock single, ‘Heaven Tonight’ was saved for the end of the set, a reminder of the days when those kinds of polished hard rock melodies ruled the radio airwaves.  A three-song encore ended the evening, Malmsteen’s 1985 hit, ‘I’ll See The Light Tonight’ (which had original vocals by Jeff Scott Soto) culminating the night with a tour-de-force show of booming drums, thundering bass, and anchored by Malmsteen’s magic fingers.


The Gods had conquered.

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