Yesterday evening Nostalgia came to town. Nostalgia in the shape of Steve Lukather, an artist whose guitar playing I have a love/hate relationship to. Why love/hate, you ask? Well, Luke was a major influence when I was in my teens and early 20's. I learned nearly all of his licks and solos, and as a consequence grew kind of tired of his style. Now I can enjoy his playing in small portions
So what about the show? Luke gets major kudos for playing Talk to You Later by The Tubes, a tune he wrote (together with David Foster if I remember correctly) and having the balls to play a Toto song so shortly after announcing the group's demise (for the record the song was Live for Today and not one of the big hits like Roseanna or Hold the Line - THAT would have been weird!). Pretty much all of the show was OK, until the last encore, which was Shine On You Crazy Diamond - a song I have loved since my early teens. It started out okayish, but soon deteriorated into a tasteless wank-fest with nothing but fast, boring soloing. Which is a totally inappropriate treatment of a classic such as this.
I ran screaming through the streets of Stockholm, wishing that I had been wise enough to leave before the encore.