With guitars for their weapons, the two Shredder Knights, Yngwie Malmsteen and Marty Friedman were third-day performers at the Singapore Rockfest 2024. These two guitar maestros successfully amazed the audience, who packed the Capitol Theatre in the City Hall in two electric performances.
Yngwie Malmsteen – Marty Friedman
Singapore Rockfest – 2 May 2024
In an event hosted by LAMC Productions, Yngwie Malmsteen and Marty Friedman followed the Incubus performance on 29 April and Deep Purple on 1 May.
At noon, there was a meet and greet with Marty Friedman at The Flying V bar, the best Heavy Metal bar in Singapore. Meanwhile, a meet and greet event with Yngwie Malmsteen was held behind the stage while Marty Friedman was performing on stage for his closing two songs.
In the afternoon, around half-five, The Capitol Theatre began to fill with fans, especially those who wanted to buy merchandise and spectators with priority tickets and VIP Hospitality. The lobby of the Capitol Theatre was a buzz, while a queue formed in an orderly manner at the plaza in front of the Capitol Theatre building for the regular ticket holders.
Marty Friedman
At around 8.00 pm, Marty Friedman took the stage and immediately kicked off with the song Stigmata Addiction. Marty performed as a full band with three other band members including Naoki Morioka on guitar who could really keep up with Marty. Ash Pearson, who is also part of the Technical Death Metal band Revocation, was on drums and Wakazaemon, a Japanese girl, was full of skill and a monster with her bass.
Marty Friedman and his band appeared solid, excellent, neat, and full of skill with a great sound. The set was punctuated with humour and jokes from Marty to the audience as well as to his band members.
Highlights of the set included solo songs Tornado Of Souls, Amagi Goe, Dragon Mistress and Kaze Ga Fuiteiru.
Yngwie Malmsteen
After Marty Friedman and band left the stage, the guitar technician, Yngwie Malmsteen’s band members, assisted by a local crew, built the final set of equipment and stage for Yngwie Malmsteen’s performance.
Not long after, the stack of Marshall cabinets that had become an amp wall were visible. These had previously been hidden behind black curtains while Marty Friedman was still playing.
Yngwie Malmsteen brought a touring band of three members, including Emiliano Martinez on bass and backing vocals, Kevin Klingenschmid on drums and Nick Z. Marino on keyboards and lead vocals, sharing several songs with Yngwie.
Yngwie immediately kicked off with the intro to Rising Force while the stage was still dark. Within a few seconds the stage was bright with dominant red lights and a little yellow and orange, occasionally accompanied by smoke until the end of the show.
After Rising Force, we were immediately treated to Top Down, Foot Down/No Rest For The Wicked then Soldier. Yngwie Malmsteen performed a total of around 23 mainstay numbers, such as Far Beyond The Sun, which was interspersed with covers of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody guitar solo, Seven Sign, Relentless Fury, Wolves At The Door, You Don’t Remember and I’ll Never Forget.
A Deep Purple cover of Smoke On The Water, followed, along with Fugue, which was accompanied by the action of Noise from the strat by rubbing it on the amp’s speaker and monitor and breaking several of the guitar strings.
At the age of 61 next month, Yngwie Malmsteen is still very energetic, moving quickly, kicking around and controlling the stage. All this, even though he looked a little tired. Yngwie admitted on stage that he was still jetlagged.
There was a slight incident in the middle of the show when someone from the crowd threw an empty drink can onto the stage, which almost hit Yngwie. Bassist Emiliano Martinez asked, “Who threw it? Please come up to the stage otherwise the show will be stopped.”
Luckily, Yngwie seemed relaxed and immediately continued the show. Yngwie closed his performance with the number Black Star.
These two shred guitarist warriors gave a unique colour to Singapore Rockfest 2024. They managed to enchant an audience of all ages who came to fill the Capitol Theatre floor, proving that shred guitarists will never die.
Once again, thank you to Ross and the LAMC Productions family for giving MetalTalk the opportunity to cover two days of an extraordinary Singapore Rockfest.
