Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Tosin Abasi and Brendon Small Rock "A Benefit for Cliff III"
This past Friday night, Joe Satriani and Steve Vai hosted "A Benefit for Cliff III," a benefit show in support of their good friend, music-industry veteran Cliff Cultreri.
The show, which took place at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles, featured performances by Satriani, Vai and Animals As Leaders, and also featured Dethklok's Brendon Small. The show also featured Satriani's band—Mike Keneally (vocals, guitar), Marco Minnemann (drums) and Bryan Beller (bass).
Cultreri is the A&R executive who "discovered" Satriani, Vai and many other artists while working at Relativity Records and Koch Entertainment. Cultreri is suffering from a host of auto-immune and connective-tissue disorders that are simultaneously attacking his immune system, a 1-in-100 million occurrence that causes severe pain and physical debilitations.
He served as A&R for Allan Holdsworth, Billy Sheehan and Talas, Peter Frampton, Megadeth, Corrosion Of Conformity, Exodus, Anthrax, Death, Venom, Slash's Snakepit, My Bloody Valentine, the Cure, Modern English, Gene Loves Jezebel, Fat Joe, Common, Bone-Thugs-N-Harmony, 3-6 Mafia, KRS1, Beatnuts, C Murder, Kurupt, Soulja Slim, RZA and many others.
Satriani and Vai hosted benefit shows for Cultreri in 2006 and 2011.
Check out this photo gallery by Andy Alt.
Photo: Andy Alt
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Damian is Editor-in-Chief of Guitar World magazine. In past lives, he was GW’s managing editor and online managing editor. He's written liner notes for major-label releases, including Stevie Ray Vaughan's 'The Complete Epic Recordings Collection' (Sony Legacy) and has interviewed everyone from Yngwie Malmsteen to Kevin Bacon (with a few memorable Eric Clapton chats thrown into the mix). Damian, a former member of Brooklyn's The Gas House Gorillas, was the sole guitarist in Mister Neutron, a trio that toured the U.S. and released three albums. He now plays in two NYC-area bands.
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