Joe Satriani
HQ, Monday 26^th November 2018

(Reviewed by John Glennie)

Joe ‘Satch’ Satriani is a rock guitar legend from the USA who, early in his career, was a guitar teacher. He has taught some other famous guitarists including Steve Vai (Frank Zappa), Larry LaLonde (Primus) Kirk Hammett (Metallica) and Kevin Cadogan (Third Eye Blind) to name just a few.

He wowed the HQ crowd with some amazing guitar-shredding. The band included Joe Travers on drums, Bryan Beller on bass and Mike Keneally on keyboards and guitar. The band was extremely tight and there was great energy on stage throughout the evening. Joe’s skills were amazing to watch with his fingers moving at lightning speed and playing Jimi Hendrix-style with his teeth on occasion.

Many of the tracks played were accentuated with complementary video footage on the huge screen behind the band. Some highlights for me included ‘Cherry Blossom’ and ‘Cataclysmic’ closely followed by ‘Ceremony’.

As much as I am a guitar-freak (istening, not playing!) I did find that, after a while, some vocals would be nice to give some more meaning to the song. Joe is definitely one of the best at his art but with one instrumental following another it became a little mundane for me – sorry to the Satriani-enthusiasts!

My favourite track for the night was the first one after the interval – ‘Sleep Walk’, a cover of the 1959 song by Santo & Johnny. It actually was a melody that was easily recognisable and the guitar did the “singing”. However, they soon launched into another wild rock guitar jam – still brilliant, but I was over it by then!

My rating is purely based on my viewpoint and I am certain that the hard-core Satriani fans wouldn’t give anything less than a perfect score – and justifiably!