Three of the fastest - and frilliest - guitar slingers in the world are heading to New Zealand for an axe-wielding frenzy.
Joe Satriani (pictured), Steve Vai, and Steve Lukather, who is best known as the lead guitarist for Toto, have teamed up for next year's series of G3 concerts.
They play Auckland's Logan Campbell on March 25 and Wellington's Michael Fowler Centre on March 26.
Satriani, a technical and freakishly fast guitarist and, since the release of his classic 1987 album, Surfing With the Alien, one of the leaders of hard rock guitar virtuosity, got the G3 tours up and running in 1996. Since then he has had many different and diverse guitarists in the ranks, including everyone from Queen's Brian May and King Crimson's experimental prog' fusion master Robert Fripp, to John Petrucci of flowery progressive metal band Dream Theatre.
The format of the show is usual made up of three solo sets with Satriani last, followed by an all-in triple axe attack set known as the G3 jam. In the past they have played everything from Foxy Lady and Purple Haze to Neil Young's Rockin' In the Free World and Deep Purple's Smoke On the Water.