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The synthesizer has spent much of its life in the background. Drummers get 20-minute solo spots and guitarists are all about the widdly bits. Hell, even bassists get a solo lick in now and then. And keyboardists? Well, they get to hold down the chords or play the comps over which their bandmates indulge themselves.

This is especially true today. Much of electronic music is a desktop-bound process and not terribly conducive to riffing. It's hard to imagine an electronic musician jamming out a blistering ACID-loop solo.

Still, rare occasions, keyboardists have been known to step up to the footlights for some heroic histrionics, and when that happens, we take notice. For better or worse. It's all too easy to side with the status quo, slagging off the synthesist who dares take his or her place in the spotlight, but these performers deserve our praise for putting both restraint and self-consciousness aside and giving their audiences a real show.

12. Magma - Hhai

Has there ever been a more bombastic band than Christian Vander's Magma? Not content with creating concept albums, Vander created an epic concept that sprawled across multiple albums. It even comes complete with its own invented language. It's heady stuff and no mistake. Fortunately, all of this high concept is tempered with some terrific playing. Case in point: the blazing Minimoog solo played by Benoit Wideman (following another keyboard solo by Emmanuel Borghi).

11. Jordan Rudess - The Dark Eternal Night

Dream Theatre's Jordan Rudess drags bombastic synth soloing kicking and screaming into the modern era with his wicked widdly on the Haken Continuum Fingerboard. Here it drives an equally cutting edge Roland V-Synth. Rudess has earned his place as a modern keyboard hero with his precise yet energetic performances. The rawk grimacing probably helps a bit, too. Well, we're sold, anyway. Savvy viewers will note the dangerous-looking and slightly Klingonese keytar hanging in the background. The man has no fear!

10. Jan Hammer (w/Jeff Beck) - Blue Wind

Really, we could have listed virtually any Jan Hammer track, but he may have been at his best when jamming with guitarissimo Jeff Beck, as seen here. It takes some serious cajones to trade licks with a guitarist of Beck's considerable talents, but Hammer rises to the occasion with some blistering leads from his, yep, you guessed it, keytar. Check him out as he leans in for some classic rawk posturing at 3:09. It's a back and forth interplay between two giants and the Czech master leaves us in no doubt at all that, for that night anyway, it really was Hammer Time.

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