Second Life Live Music Review
Written by Enniv Zarf (RL: Paul Kwo)
Metaverse Music
Vanny Wilder
Jerry Garcia Amphitheater
Since the last set was only half an hour, I figured I'd stay for this next set too.
Vanny does mostly instrumental works, but does add voice in on the occasion. And he knows his guitar very well, and he plays it very well. He has fantastic energy that is controlled all the time. Never going too far. But that may or may not be a good thing depending on what you personally like.
For me, sometimes it's a great thing. But at times I would like to hear him about about to break that guitar too, which I'm pretty sure he has no problem doing. Still though he's absolutely a fantastic musician and guitar player and does it all effortlessly.
Vanny opened his set with what he usually opened with...
...and it's a pretty fun and groovy lick. But I think the fact that he played it so many times, after hearing the rest of the concert I realized how uninspired that was comparative to the rest of what he played. Don't get me wrong, I didn't realize that until afterward because the rest of the set was so much more interesting and moving then that first piece. The one thing I did think initially was that the piece did run a little too long. By the end of it, I sort of wanted him to just move on to something else or do something crazy.
The rest of the set really showed how much sound he can get out of his instrument. He does everything that I would expect from a guitar player. He's probably one of the best electric guitar player I have heard so far in Second Life. Though I am sure a few others could play a mean one, but since they sing most of the time they rarely show off what they can do with the guitar. And I can't compare the electric stuff with the acoustic stuff, they are just too different.
His third song he actually sang some stuff. But he really muffled up his voice and mumbled his words. He also let the instrument dominate and cover his voice. It came across more like it's half spoken and half sung and it worked well. The voice added this earthy, bluesy quality to the music that I thought gave it a neat variation. It almost felt like it as a random bum off the street trying to mumble something to me. Vanny really got that Stevie Ray electric blues feel down.
Vanny really grew on me over the half hour. His Latin Rumba had some really fantastic sounds that I absolutely enjoyed. Though I did find that with his voice and the electric blues, I'm not sure I buy into it 100%. But it was still absolutely fascinating to hear though even for just once.
He had great energy and his music is there. But I almost wanted him to be just a little less controlled and more wild. I always just feel like that this kind of electric blues just is the unabashed form of blues, with no intention of holding back. So I was kind of hoping for something super sick and super sweet. He gave me just sick and sweet, which I will still settle for any day.
Btw, he also builds and sells household items. We all do multiple things in SL, so should definitely go and check that out sometimes.
