Marty Friedman Concert Review-The Marquee Theater Tempe AZ 03-14-23

Review and photos by Roc Boyum

Guitar virtuoso Marty Friedman and his band of brilliant shredders hit The Marquee Theater stage as direct support for the progressive metal masters, Queensryche on March 14, 2023.

Marty Friedman

Before the show started, the fans where heard chanting; Marty! Marty! Marty! in anticipation of the arrival of this guitar master shredder. After the crazy chanting, the band huddled around the drummer for the joining of fists, you know, all for one for all and one for all! Friedman then walked to the front of the stage and everyone in the band pounded and hammered out chords that stopped and started with Friedman pointing one arm to the sky at the end of each chord assault. In this true rock star fashion of an era gone by, Friedman and the band would repeat this a number of times with the crowd cheering at the end of each thundering chord attack. Some might say that this was a bit over the top – but I say rubbish to that! This is how to fire up an audience and fire up the audience he did – bringing back the glory days of rock shows when that larger than life persona was just so cool! From the onset, Friedman wowed the audience with an all instrumental show of stellar guitar work and crazy musicianship from everybody on stage. If for some reason or another you’re not familiar with Mr. Friedman; check him out now! Also, if you’ve only heard or seen Friedman through his work with Megadeth, then this show was definitely a real serious blow mind, for sure! From the moment Friedman and company hit the stage, one realizes that they are witnessing something rare and special. Friedman’s persona throughout the show was full of swagger and grace as he effortlessly commanded his guitar with a display of a masterful technical prowess that was not only brain splitting, but was simultaneously overflowing with enough passion to make a blues guitarist cry.

Marty Friedman

Friedman and company are a tour de force of progressive instrumental thrash, metal and rock all rolled into one with songs that are constructed in such a way that the average listener doesn’t feel “left out” – like an assault of mind numbing technical prowess that’s just an endless blur of 64th notes thrown at them. Every member of Friedman’s band are top notch musicians that are super shredders each in their right.

Even though Friedman’s set was a mere six songs, these songs were pretty long and packed with enough firepower to sustain every shred metal fan for the foreseeable future with a killer fix of brilliant musicianship.

Keeping an audience engaged for forty five minutes of instrumental prowess is not easy but this band had the audience wanting more, then more, and then a little more on top of that. Hopefully Friedman will someday soon embark on a headline tour, it was obvious that these fans would be content to watch this band’s show into the early morning hours.
Friedman’s show is a show that will not be forgotten and with Queensryche as the main act on this tour; this is a mega show you simply cannot miss.

Marty Friedman Setlist From The Stage: