Most impressive guitar playing you ever witnessed?

[Tig***]

The first time it happened was when I was in high school and I saw Al Dimeola when he was touring for the Casino album. I was amazed that anyone could get to that level at all. It sounded like a machine was playing a Les Paul through a Marshall stack.
--Jim

Good call. I've never seen him in person. A buddy in high school turned me on to him as an alternative the Van Halen. Amazing musician!

Big influence...

[sunvalleylaw]

That reminds me. I forgot I saw Pat Metheny in like 1981 or 2. He was pretty impressive.

[MAXIFUNK]

Considering I have toured with some of the top names in the industry as security and worked 1000's of shows. I have seen damn near everybody from 1970 to 2000.
But some do stick out more than others............

Thin Lizzy
Van Halen
Pat Travers with Pat Thrall
PFunk
Isley brothers
Tony Madden Rufus/Chaka Khan
The dead
Metallica
David Gilmour
Drac
Priest
Prince
Jesse Johnson
Charlie Singleton
Santana
Buddy Guy
Al Di Meola
Hiram Bullock
Lee Rit
George Benson before he sang to damn much
Larry Carlton and Coryell
Hell their are just to many to name who's playing really was top shelf that I seen over the years so many different style and genres.
But these guys below shocked with their skill level caught me off guard.

Alabama these cats could really play
Steel Pulse Reggae at is finest very good players
Slave the funk masters live where way better than their records
Pat Travers Band him and Pat Thrall of automatic man together was awesome just awesome.

Thin Lizzy with all those dudes on guitars by far the best night of rock/metal guitars ever!!! 3 or 4 great players all at one time depending on the tour.

[Rx Tone]

Did you see Johnny Winter at the Warehouse? Not sure how old you are but I do remember (barely) seeing him there I think in the early 70's.

No, but I remember the Warehouse. I went to a few shows there.
I saw JW on the Riverboat President, I saw him at the House of Blues and I saw him at Jazz Fest.
I saw JB at Jazz Fest last year. Amazing.

[Jimi75]

For me that would be Scott Henderson, whom I saw about 2 years ago and Jimmy Bruno (at that time playing Jazz on a 7-string Benedetto guitar) whom I accompanied for a week at the Franfkurt Music Tradefair.

[kidsmoke*]

Like Maxi, I get to work shows, and have seen many many guitarists.

Technically...
Richard Thompson
Acoustic Dude named Willy Porter
Bluegrass Dude name Andy Falco

But from a totally kept me locked in for every note, surprised me, rocked, made me ask "how he do that" and generally made me forget about life outside the room for two hours.

Bill Frisell.

I'm working a Scofield show in a couple weeks, first time for him, and cannot wait.

[Guitar50]

I was lucky enough to attend GIT (now Musician's Institute) in 1981-82 along with Scott Henderson. He was very good back then and was totally focused on his music. While At GIT, I was able to see Steve Morse in a very intimate setting (ie: just Steve and the bass player from the Dixie Dregs in front of 50 drooling guitar players); also Joe Pass and John Abercrombie were amazing as well.

[Eric***]

I haven't seen anywhere close to as many shows as a lot of you, but the guitarists that just made me sit back and think "wow" were Tommy Shaw when I saw Styx about 3 years ago and Tommy Emmanuel earlier this year.

Tommy Shaw totally caught me by surprise -- I wasn't expecting much from Styx, but his guitar playing was absolutely on fire.

[R_of_G]

In 2002 I saw Marc Ribot (with Los Cubanos Postizos) at Tonic in NYC. I was no more than three feet from him the whole night. That was both a lot of fun and very impressive to witness how he does what he does.

The other "most impressive" piece of guitar playing I've seen live was seeing Steve Vai play with Zappa Plays Zappa. Dweezil was exceptional all night long as well, playing great versions of his father's songs, but the part of the set with Vai just blew me away. It's been about five years and I can still hear one of his solos note for note in my head.

[tunghaichuan***]

Probably Steve Morse at a clinic that I went to back at the end of the 80s. Blindingly fast, accurate, and very distinctive tone.

The most impressive guitar playing I've ever heard is on the Praxis album Transmutation featuring Buckethead. That guy is in another world.

[jpfeifer]

Somebody mentioned Pat Metheny, ... I completely forgot to mention him. I've seen him several times over the years and he knocks me over almost everytime. It's not so much his technique or chops that impresses me (although that part is impressive in his playing), but it's his ability to solo effortlessly over the changes and make really interesting, musical solos. His piano player Lyle Mays really impresses me too. Just great musicians overall.

--Jim

[R_of_G]

The most impressive guitar playing I've ever heard is on the Praxis album Transmutation featuring Buckethead. That guy is in another world.

Unquestionably. I've yet to have the opportunity to see him live, but I have some live recordings and he's someone high on my list of people to see play, at which point I will probably have to come back here and edit my answer to this question.

[Blaze]

I have 4, but very different

-Steve Morse ( Fusion trio) - Tommy Emmanuel - Johny Winter - Bireli Lagrene

[marnold***]

Two come immediately to mind:

(1) Any of the three live acoustic performances I've seen of Woke Up Dreaming by Joe Bonamassa. As amazing an electric guitar player as Joe is, it's an entire auditorium of jaws on the floor when he performs this number. Check it out on YouTube.

Hard for me to argue with that! Some of the playing I saw at the George Lynch clinic was pretty sweet too, although it was probably cooler just to meet and have a picture with one of my heroes.

[sumitomo]

L.A. forum in the 70's,Went to see Humble Pie (with the backup singers the blackberries)some group opened for them Foghat,Foghat smoked that place,it was great and then Humble Pie came out and tried,Yes I said tried,and man I had seen them before,They gave it all they had.It was a great great show for guitar playing.To this day I'll still call it a tie.Sumi

[Lev]

Most of the performances that I've witnessed that have really lived long in the memory have been acoustic. There's just something about one person with a guitar filling a room full of music. Here's my list:

Buster B Jones - saw him in the early 90's at a guitar fair, he was promoting Godin guitars and he played Lady Madonna in a finger pickin style that just blew me away.

Leo Kottke - again in the early 90's Guitar World transcribed Jeu, Joy of Man's Desiring. A friend of mine worked it out even though we didn't know Leo Kottke nor had we ever heard his version. A few months later we saw an advert in a local paper that this Leo Kottke guy was playing in a small club in Dublin. We went along not knowing what to expect but were amazed by this guys skills, he could engage an audience like no one else I've seen.

Joe Bonamassa - saw in 2007 and like DVM said his performance of Woke Up Dreaming has to be seen to be believed.

Richie Sambora - I saw Bon Jovi as part of the New Jersey tour (late 80's I think). Again it was Richie's acoustic solo acoustic performance (intro to Wanted Dead or Alive, I think) that made a huge impression on me as I was starting out playing guitar.

Honorable mentions go to: The Edge, Steve Vai, Satch & The Stones

[Jimi75]

Richie Sambora - I saw Bon Jovi as part of the New Jersey tour (late 80's I think). Again it was Richie's acoustic solo acoustic performance (intro to Wanted Dead or Alive, I think) that made a huge impression on me as I was starting out playing guitar.

Was that also Richie singing with the acoustic playing? Man, this guy can sing way better than his boss and his guitar playing is exceptionally great.

[guitarhack]

B.B. King, who puts so much feeling into every note, and Steve Howe with Yes back in '72 left me drop-jawed.

[Perfect Stranger]

The ones that are always the most impressive to me, are the ones that make incredible music seem effortless.