I’ve been a Yngwie Malmsteen fan since 1986. I love his work with Steeler, his work with Alcatrazz, and his first four albums, ‘Rising Force through ‘Odyssey’, are phenomenal. Yngwie has worked with the likes of Ron Keel, Graham Bonnet, Jeff Scott Soto, Joe Lynn Turner, Mark Boals, Doogie White, and Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens, all great vocalists. Any guitarist would be thrilled to work with one or two of these guys, and he’s worked with all of them. In recent years, Yngwie has made a commitment to forge ahead without a frontman. Rather than getting a suitable singer, he’s taken on some of the vocal duties! Yngwie has delegated some to his keyboardist, who does an adequate job. It’s as unremarkable as a television talent show contestant’s performance. Yngwie’s band has a supporting cast of no names as of late. Just insert anyone who can help enhance his neoclassical ‘widdly widdly.’ Throughout his career, Yngwie’s contractors had their own following, and they’d bring in their own fan bases. It had more of a band feel back then than it does these days.
This brings us to Yngwie’s ‘underplay’ in The Dalles, Oregon’s Granada Theater. Yngwie was set to play in ‘the big city’ of Portland, Oregon, the following night. The doors opened at 6:00 pm, with ‘the show’ to begin at 7:00 pm. I was running late and assumed by my arrival that I had missed the set opener, “Rising Force.” I made my way through the door by 7:10 pm and nothing. Show hadn’t started! Things got underway after a huge delay. Yngwie didn’t hit the stage until roughly 8:30 pm.
Yngwie had a ‘wall’ of Marshall heads and cabinets. I’ve seen this in the past in previous Yngwie. When I say that it looked ridiculous, it really was; it was ‘Spinal Tappy.’ Since we’re in the country, it reminded me of the guy that rolls in with that lifted diesel truck that’s decked out with a lot of unnecessary aftermarket gadgets and wants it to be known that he’s ‘the alpha.’ Yngwie had his band banished to the left side of the stage, where the keyboardist/singer, bassist, and drummer fought for elbow room. Yngwie, on the other hand, had use of 3/4 of the stage and pranced around, posed, threw picks, and kicked picks into the audience. Yngwie lavished in the attention of 150 or so present. Right out of the blocks from the first lick of “Rising Force,” I knew what I was in for: loud and overly distorted guitar. I know it’s a rock show, but volume isn’t an issue if you can hear what is being performed. I couldn’t hear the drummer who was playing what appeared to be a larger version of the ‘Hello Kitty’ drum kit that Mike Portnoy played in that YouTube video. You know the one I’m talking about. There was zero bottom end; some of the keyboard noodling was identifiable, but overall it was an overly distorted barrage of notes!
The performance was sterile; it lacked chemistry and was flat. Yngwie showed no emotion and no facial expression; it was hard to tell how much he was not engaging with the audience or his plastic surgery, which appeared to have left him with this cold expression on his face. The man is extremely skilled; he doesn’t lack confidence in his abilities, and after what I witnessed, he should be synonymous with ‘lead guitar,’ much like some singers are struck with ‘LSD.’ Yngwie, like his idol Ritchie Blackmore, will do it his way at all costs. I’ve interviewed Yngwie on a handful of occasions when I spoke with him in 2014 when he was promoting his ‘Guitar Gods Tour.’ In the conversation, Yngwie said, “There’s two ways of doing things; there’s the wrong way, and there’s the Yngway.” That should tell you all you need to know. This is Yngwie’s 40th Anniversary Tour; there were some missed opportunities by not including material by Steeler and Alcatrazz, like “Hot On Your Heels” or “Island In The Sun” or “Jet To Jet.” Doing so would’ve required enlisting a singer; that seems to be a distant memory in 2024. I was disappointed, to say the least.
