13/08/2014 - Richie Sambora - Tokyo, Ex Theater Roppongi

That's exactly where I was with The Iridium Room shows. I enjoyed them BUT.....they could have knocked my socks off and they didn't. Orianthi didn't really get a positive or a negative from me. She pretty much stayed in the background but she was featured a few times and again - she didn't knock my socks off. It was more like - she's ok.

So with just a meh reaction I probably wouldn't go out of my way to see this setup again. No hate for Richie here, just meh......

That's something I didn't mention. Where does she fit in all this? You could argue "Well, we have Richie guitarist extraordinaire with Orianthi. That's some great jamming right there." and you'd be dead wrong since great jamming is something that's seriously lacking here. They sound like shit together, Richie doing the same licks over and over, not impressing anyone, and Orianthi trying to not totally destroy Richie.

I honestly don't understand what's the thought behind the tour.

Yeah , i agree she cant sing ..... Well she can , but there is nothing special or original about her voice .

The problem with Orianthi has always been the same apart from maybe 2013 with Alice Cooper, before she told she was going her own way with Richie. She is not really a song writer and she is not really a singer either. She certainly is no rock star. What she is is a brilliant player of guitar when someone else writes the songs and takes center stage. At playing the instrument, she is terribly terribly underrated in the internet mostly by the guys who are almost ok in their own playing. She does have a sucky tone but other than that she is pretty damn great. She is at her best at slow blues tones which she rarely even does anymore and at her worst at shredding which she used to do quite a bit with Alice and now she doesn't really even do that. Alice elevated her to a star status in his stage show and she was brilliant. Almost stealing Alice Cooper shows is no mean feat.

Now Richie tucks her in the background and she looks completely removed and disinterested and almost too tentative not to play for real. Richie gives her little to work with and she just goes through the motions with that. I think she has completely lost her way. She used to practice a lot, I am afraid Richie has rubbed on her. I am afraid the farm girl in her has caught up with her in a big city and that she has lost her way which was to play guitar in the footsteps of Santana and Vai who were her main influences. Vai even mentored her in her teens.

Now she has turned into a girlfriend of a bigger name guitar player that at his prime was maybe almost as good as she is. Richie by right is far superior as a songwriter and frontman and even in singing. But with the guitar it really is a no contest under normal circumstances. But she just seems to go through the motions. She doesn't really look that much better than Richie and there is very little inspiration. She has even lost her precision. Just check out the 20 minutes of excellent quality footage of AC show in Wacken that is in the youtube. She used to be machine like in her precision. Now she seems as sloppy as Richie.

Sad in a way since she does look reasonably happy.

So Richie does basically the same thing with her that he accuses Jon to do with him.

I have the impression that Richie see himself as a mentor for her, but unfortunately he is not at his best.