Joe Satriani and Steve Vai Benefit A Success

The House of Blues Hollywood rocked this past Sunday when legendary guitarists Joe Satriani and Steve Vai hosted a second benefit concert in support of music industry veteran and their good friend, Cliff Cultreri. "A Benefit for Cliff II" took place on Sunday, July 10th and featured performances by Satriani and Vai, as well as special opening act featuring Brandon Small and friends. Other special guests and friends of the duo, including Dweezil Zappa, Orianthi, Brendon Small and Tony MacAlpine, joined in for the ending jam, while Red Hot Chilli Peppers/Chickenfoot drummer Chad Smith and Babyface, watched from the balcony.

Between acts, a number of items from both Satriani and Vai's personal collections were auctioned off, including custom amps, cabinets, pedal's and yes, even guitars. An autographed Satriani red JS1200 raised $6200, while a custom Fibenare guitar raised $4800. Satriani and Vai, along with other artists, also graciously donated various items to be auctioned online.

Beginning July 5th and running through July 15th, fans can continue to bid on items such as a Steve Vai signed 20th Anniversary JEM guitar commemorating the entire line of Ibanez guitars. Steve used this guitar for the duration of the 2007 "String Theories Tour" and on the Grammy Nominated song "Now We Run", featured on the Platinum award-winning DVD "Where the Wild Things Are"; the current bid stands at $15,000. Other auction items include a Joe Satriani JS1000 guitar with personalized art (currently at $5000), a Joe Satriani JS1200 guitar autographed by all the musicians, and a Paul Gilbert autographed Ibanez guitar used on the Racer X "Getting Heavier" album. The online auction can be viewed at http://www.satriani.com/benefitforcliff2/ .

In addition to the generous donations, the guitars Joe, Steve and Paul are auctioning off and the sold-out hard tickets at The House of Blues, GuitarTV.com was able to raise nearly $7000 by broadcasting the concert online to users throughout the world. The "virtual concert ticket" show was priced at $5.99 with the proceeds going to Cultreri's medical fund.

Cliff Cultreri is the A&R executive who 'discovered' Satriani and Vai, as well as many other popular recording artists, while working at Relativity Records and Koch Entertainment. Cultreri is suffering from a host of Auto-Immune and Connective-Tissue disorders that are simultaneously attacking his immune system, a 1 in 100 million occurrence that causes severe pain and physical debilitations. During his years in the industry, Cultreri has served as A&R for a number of top names including Allan Holdsworth, Billy Sheehan & Talas, Peter Frampton, Megadeth, Corrosion Of Conformity, Exodus, Anthrax, Death, Venom, Slash's Snakepit, My Bloody Valentine, The Cure, Modern English, Gene Loves Jezebel, Fat Joe, Common, Bone-Thugs-N-Harmony, 3-6 Mafia, KRS1, Beatnuts, C Murder, Kurupt, Soulja Slim, RZA, and many others in all genres of music. In 2006, Satriani and Vai joined forces for the first Cultreri benefit show. They raised money and brought attention to the devastation this disease takes on both the patient and their family.

When the final tally is in, Satriani and Vai hope to have raised even more funds with this year's benefit to help with the Cultreri family's financial needs. "It's always a lot of fun to get on-stage and play with Steve," said Satriani. "We're especially thankful to have so many friends who came to jam with us and help raise money for our friend Cliff. All together, the artists and fans, made it a very special night for all of us."

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