Greatest live solo you’ve actually witnessed

jeztone2

Gary Moore Feb 1987 Wild Frontier Tour. Playing The Loner, just amazing and my god…my ears rang for three days afterwards. It was at the beginning of the tour when he was using a pair of PRS Custom 24’s a red and a white one. At some point he went back to the Charvels by the time of Live in Stockholm. 

flying_pie

I honestly can't think of a gig I've gone to where I've really focused on a guitar solo. It's always about the whole package and while I always watch the guitarists it's the vocals and the performance that really count.

I can point out that Dave Grohl's insistence on stringing out every track with extended, uninspiring solos are the worst I've ever heard. And the likes of Satch, Angus, Paul Gilbert and co just do what you expect and the law of diminishing returns sets in no matter how good they are.

For impact alone I'll go with Muse at T in the Park in 2001. I didn't know who they were and stumbled into them mid set thinking 'who's the dick with the pink hair?' at the start of what I now know was Plug In Baby. While it's not the most technical guitar solo I've ever seen the performance and energy was just brilliant and instantly converted me.

And for non guitar related solos Jarlaith Henderson is incredible. He uses the Uillean pipes just like a guitar. And fuck me can Aly Bain and Phil Campbell play the hell out of their instruments when they get going

viz

fastonebaz said:

Glorious

This

TheBigDipper

Guthrie Govan playing his solo for "Drive Home" with Steven Wilson at either RFH or QEH (can't remember) on the South Bank, touring the "Raven.." album. 2013? 2014? 

Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd playing their solos from "Marquee Moon" at Shepherds Bush. Early 2000s? 

And I've seen a lot of Steve Howe and Steve Hackett, but the two I've picked above were just extremely special.

ICBM

Phil Manzanera playing Out Of The Blue at the very first proper gig I went to - The Explorers (his post-Roxy Music band with Andy Mackay and James Wraith) at Birmingham University in 1985. I have no idea if it counts as a ‘great’ solo - although the one on Live At The Palace (Camden, from the same tour) is pretty good - but I was in the front row and could have just about reached up and touched his Les Paul Custom. Mind-blowingly inspirational for me.

Rob1742

Budgie - live at the Leicester Palais in front of me and maybe 10 others on a Thursday night. I turned to stone was the song. 

Lodious

I saw Nels Cline play a predictably amazing solo during Impossible Germany. Solo was based on the album version but with enough development to make it interesting to hear live. 

Guitarists have to have a realistic expectation of how a solo comes over in a live situation, too many notes or too much gain or reverb and a lot of the time you just can’t hear anything. I’ve seen Allan Holdsworth live twice, but never really heard him play as none of his legato playing was really identifiable. Dittto Vernon Reid.

Haych

For sheer technical performance it would have to be John Petrucci when I saw Dream Theater perform Images and Words in its entirety a few years ago.

The guy didn't play a bum note the entire set and his playing was superb.  If only the same could be said for James LaBrie's vocals, but I fully appreciate the difficulty singers have maintaining the chops they had when they were younger, I felt quite sorry for him.

For musical brilliance then Derek Trucks takes the trophy without a doubt.  His playing was soulful to the point of being spiritual, an incredible player who just knows where he should be and what to play, when to let the music breathe and when to double down.  His phrasing is so good it's emotional.

If I had to choose between the two then Derek wins every day for eternity.

CKsam

Some draw-dropping work by Richard Hawley at his recent Sheffield City Hall gig(s)!

Cols

Jimmy Page playing Heartbreaker in 1998 at the Glasgow SECC.  The bloody show-off absolutely nailed it.

firepaulmusic

Ritchie Sambora, Dry County, Wembley 1995...

axisus

MagicPigDetective said:

Steve Vai doing For the Love of God in Manchester 2022. It was the first time I’d seen him live and this solo was just unbelievable.

Yeah, I came to say Steve Vai. Amazing presence and musicianship.  Not just For the love of God as well, he has many jaw dropper songs. Saw him 3 times I guess back in the 90s/early 2000s. The magician of the guitar!

blobb

Probably Andy Latimer playing the Lady Fantasy solo but I've seen Steve Hillage do the Om Riff solo a few times and that always brings the house down. 

impmann

Dominic said:

A Jazz Guitarist on a Telecaster called Jim Mullen 40 years ago at the Torrington in North Finchley .
I thought Telecasters were weedy and old fashioned until then .

Blimey... I may also have been there! I used to live around the corner on Woodside Park Road (1990-91) and went to the Torrington most nights there was someone interesting on... I saw Jim Mullen a few times, always incredible

TheBigDipper

impmann said:

Dominic said:

A Jazz Guitarist on a Telecaster called Jim Mullen 40 years ago at the Torrington in North Finchley .
I thought Telecasters were weedy and old fashioned until then .

Blimey... I may also have been there! I used to live around the corner on Woodside Park Road (1990-91) and went to the Torrington most nights there was someone interesting on... I saw Jim Mullen a few times, always incredible

I saw Kokomo at The Torrington (and many other places) in the mid 70s. Jim was one of the guitarists, Neil Hubbard the other. Both of them were always great, but Jim didn’t stay that long after they put out their first album. IIRC, Jim used fingers, not a pick. 

Dominic

He just used his Thumb.
I saw Kokomo there too ......Torrington was a great venue ....intimate but not too small 
Kokomo played 'stuff like that' ....it wasn't really my kind of thing then but I remember thinking the song was very good .
Didn't they have a Lady vocalist ?

Ozzie744

1982 - Madison Square Garden - Brian May extended Brighton Rock solo.

TheBigDipper

Dominic said:

He just used his Thumb.
I saw Kokomo there too ......Torrington was a great venue ....intimate but not too small 
Kokomo played 'stuff like that' ....it wasn't really my kind of thing then but I remember thinking the song was very good .
Didn't they have a Lady vocalist ?

Yes - Dyan Birch. The three front singers, Dyan, Frank Collins and Paddy McHugh were such a tight unit and had been working together in studios. Lots of close harmony work. They were the voices on the hit single "Friends" by Arrival. 

This  has started me off, TBH. :-) Here's a new thread:

Greatest live vocal performance you’ve actually witnessed?

RickLucas

1991, Leeds, Duchess of York. Mick Taylor band with Zoot Money. Snowy White played a wonderful dynamic solo during Red House. Not a single note wasted, supported magnificently by the band to build to an intense crescendo. 36, maybe 48 bars of beautiful, dry and wiry Goldtop through a Marshall. I still have it on a cassette somewhere. Must dig it out.

Greatape

Hmm. So many. But in terms of rock guitar, Ty Tabor with King's X on 'It's Love' on the Faith, Hope, Love tour.