Devil’s Slinghot – Underworld 2006

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Devil’s Slingshot is the name attached to the new instrumental power-trio tour featuring guitar shredder Tony MacAlpine, bassist Billy Sheehan and drummer Virgil Donati. The three maestros, who have all played together before on various things, went out for a short European jaunt to jam on MacAlpine’s solo songs, and whatever else took their fancy.

Watching these three play is nothing short of breathtaking. It’s the kind of playing that is hard for most people to even comprehend being that good, and MacAlpine’s songs are a class above many of his contemporaries (Vai, Satriani etc). But this kind of technical instrumental music has a very limited appeal and can only remain visually entertaining for so long. Listen to it and watching it live are very different things, and once they’ve ripped thier instruments to shreds once, there’s not really a lot more to come. A pyrotechnic show or similar isn’t strictly necessary, but lyrics and a front-man add an awful lot to a live performance, and despite the three guys here being amongst the best and most respected in the field, the half-sixed crowd told the story.

That’s not to say this show was at all boring. The guys played for 90 minutes, and that was just right. Any longer and it would have started to wear thin. The set contained several songs from MacAlpine’s solo albums, none of which were individually too long, and this added a very necessary punchy quality to the set, while giving the trio plenty of space to spin out some magnificent jams.

MacAlpine, Sheehan and Donati are now firmly in a class of musicians where what they play is truly unbelievable to see. Their skill is immense, and anyone who is a fan of technical musicianship, or is a musician themselves, can’t fail to be in awe watching them.

“ nothing short of breathtaking ”

Written by Andy Lye
More: Gigs, Hard Rock, Instrumental, Devil's Slingshot