A high schooler has gone viral after delivering a flawless rendition of Steve Vai’s For The Love of God at his prom.
Armed with a Music Man Cutlass electric guitar – quite possibly Jason Richardson’s slick new signature judging by the finish – the Hungarian shredder, who posts covers on his YouTube channel under the name Laci, shows finesse across long, drawn-out passages and speedy alternate-picked runs alike, with excellent whammy bar control and plenty of emotion in his performance.
A good chunk of the audience may not quite understand the talent that has gone into mastering Vai’s track, but guitarists worldwide will know this isn’t just a casual romp through Smoke on the Water.
This is a fretboard workout that many players obsess over, a lesson unto itself. The delicate volume knob rolls and whammy trickery that concludes Laci’s performance tells you he too has spent hours fine-tuning his skills.
The video has amassed just shy of 100,000 views in a month – not bad for a prom performance in Hungary. Comments range from being “blown away” to “mesmerized”, with one person saying, “I will make sure Steve Vai sees this video.” When he does, he too will be equally as impressed.
Steve Vai - For the Love of God (Live In Concert) - YouTube
In fact, the performance is all the more impressive because of how big the stage looks around Laci. During one wide shot, you can see there is no tube amp or pedalboard on stage, a lone cable snaking off backstage into a mysterious amp or amp modeler. But instead of the stage swallowing him up, he owns it.
All the latest guitar news, interviews, lessons, reviews, deals and more, direct to your inbox!
“I was trying to push myself to the limit,” he said. “When it came time to record, my fingers were totally gone. I had pictures of my fingers taken after that session, and they were bleeding under the skin.”
A freelance writer with a penchant for music that gets weird, Phil is a regular contributor to Prog, Guitar World, and Total Guitar magazines and is especially keen on shining a light on unknown artists. Outside of the journalism realm, you can find him writing angular riffs in progressive metal band, Prognosis, in which he slings an 8-string Strandberg Boden Original, churning that low string through a variety of tunings. He's also a published author and is currently penning his debut novel which chucks fantasy, mythology and humanity into a great big melting pot.
