To commemorate the 25th anniversary of his landmark album, Passion and Warfare, Steve Vai has announced he will be embarking on a very special world tour celebrating the groundbreaking recording. Normally I don’t care about announcements for concerts that I can’t see. But come on it’s the legendary Steve Vai! And if I dream big enough maybe they’ll fly me to one of these weird countries to see him. Hey, one can hope. Don’t crush my dreams man!
Passion and Warfare is highly regarded as one of the greatest instrumental rock guitar recordings of all time. For the first time Vai will be performing the entire Passion and Warfare record from top to bottom, with some very special surprises in store.
Vai will be launching his PAW Euro tour hot off the Generation Axe tour and will be performing at the World Guitar Festival in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, on May 28, 2016. This will mark the first date of the Passion and Warfare 25th Anniversary Tour. Following that festival play and an extensive run in Europe that will include stops in Scotland, England, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Germany, Poland, France, Switzerland and many other countries, the tour will arrive in the United States in October. Additional concerts in America and abroad will be announced at a later date.
“Performing this record from top to bottom (with some very special surprises in the works) is something I’ve always dreamed of doing,” Vai said. “There are songs here I’ve never performed before, and I’m delighted that 25 years after its release, I feel as though my guitar chops are as much up to the task as ever before.”
The tour will feature a unique premium package: the Passion and Warfare EVO Experience, where among other things fans will have an opportunity to sit with Steve in an intimate Q&A session. A limited number of EVO Experience tickets will be available for each show.
In the next few weeks, there will be an official announcement regarding the release by Sony Music Entertainment and Legacy Recordings of Passion and Warfare 25th Anniversary Edition, a remastered version of the original recording featuring four bonus tracks, and a new companion album called Modern Primitive, which includes material that was either recorded or written after Vai’s first solo record Flex-Able and prior to the writing and recording of the music on Passion and Warfare. These tracks have not been previously released.
“Modern Primitive is by far my most adventurous recording to date, and I feel as though it’s my most telling release.”
Vai will also be performing select G3 dates with Joe Satriani and The Aristrocrats in Italy and Germany during the month of July.
