Joe Satriani, Auckland NZ, 2018

Joe Satriani

4th December 2018
Powerstation, Auckland, New Zealand.

Review by Cameron Miller. Photography by Matt Henry Mendonca.

So impressive it’s silly, so silly it’s impressive. That’s Joe Satriani’s live show.

You need to be really good at guitar to get away with what Satriani does. People packed out the Powerstation for two and a half hours last night, just to watch Joe Satriani be good at playing guitar. He’s so good, he’s allowed to make wearing wraparound shades indoors a fashion statement. He’s so good, he gets to act cool while making orgasm faces on stage. He’s so good, he forgoes an opening act and just plays twice. Satriani puts on a show that is comically grandiose, cheesy and self-indulgent, yet so unashamed that it blithely barges through cringe without a glance. All of which only works because he is just that damned good.

The first thing that hit me, and it hit hard, was the sound quality. From the opening chords, I don’t think I’ve ever heard the power and beauty of live rock guitar captured so perfectly in the mix. More than that, every member of the band was snugly fit into their own little sound pocket, easily discerned and appreciated if you cared to zone in on the bass or keys at any particular moment. Sound engineering isn’t something I often go on about, nor is it even something I understand very well, but it made a huge contribution to this show.

Satriani and his band blasted the welcoming cheers of the crowd away with “Energy” and “Catbot,” the opening duo from his latest album What Happens Next. Following quickly was the famous “Satch Boogie,” and the three tracks set the tone for the show- a celebration of all the joyous excesses of classic rock. It was going to be raucous, virtuosic, and lengthy. Cymbals would crash, whammy bars shriek, notes fly in a frenzy. Coloured spotlights would flash, spin, and rove. It’s compulsory to dedicate some space to Satriani’s solos, even though everything worth saying has been said better before. Aside from the mind-numbing speed, it was the fluidity that grabbed me; the effortless flow from one passage to another, one run of notes into their progression, an improvisational lick into a recognisable motif. That, and the playfulness. Satriani really loves playing guitar (just check out those orgasm faces), and it’s so second nature to him you can almost see him finding new ways to surprise and amuse himself. Speaking of amusement, for someone who projects such ego when playing the man himself proved affable and funny when he spoke, teasingly comparing one stridently cheering audience member to Gilbert Gottfried, and inviting them to be his singer.

In many ways it was a perfect performance, but by the time a bit more of the setlist passed the perfection was beginning to feel a little shallow. Satriani doesn’t really write songs so much as he writes scaffolding from which to hang his talent. Riffs and hooks for him are departure points and home bases, not ends of themselves. The structural progression also is lacking, often simply cycliing between main hook and flashy runs until the cutoff. It’s not music that takes you somewhere, it’s music that shows you something, that something being “look what I can do.” The band he plays with are virtuosos in their own rights, but their supporting role was making their talent feel ornamental, like a beautifully carved table leg. Fortunately along came a surprise Les Claypool-esque bass solo from Bryan Beller, leading into a massively extended jam of “Ice 9,” in which everyone shifted into a beautifully sprawling, improvised dialogue. For the first time I felt like the band were playing with Satriani instead of for Satriani. The frantically building crescendo capping off the first set was the highlight of the night.

The second set introduced more variety in genre, kicking off with the relaxed, poppy “Sleepwalking” and foraying across jazz, funk and even snippets of the metal sensibilities that found fruit in pupil Kirk Hammett. The simple, solo-centric song structures made the result feel less eclectic than it could have, but any variation was welcome as the setlist began to groan under its own scope. Blessedly we were treated to both a bombastic drum solo by Joe Travers, and another wonderful improv jam. The latter saw Satriani and fellow guitarist Mike Keneally in a call and response game that escalated into a duel, the rhythm section holding the dizzying exchange steady. Keneally has played with Frank and Dweezil Zappa, and had the chops to challenge Satriani on his own turf, pulling from both of them the best playing of the night. The show then rounded off relatively quickly, with two pairs of hits: “Always With Me, Always With You” and “Summer Song” for the closer, with “Crowd Chant” and the compulsory “Surfing With The Alien” for an encore.

For both closers the band took an almost hilarious amount of time to play themselves off, but by now that egotistical excess was part of the charm. It was a fitting send off to a show kept teetering on the right side of ridiculous by Joe Satriani’s sheer ability.

Were you there at the Powerstation to witness this guitar virtuoso perform? Or have you seen Joe Satriani perform live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!

Setlist:

1. Energy
2. Catbot
3. Satch Boogie
4. Cherry Blossoms
5. Flying In A Blue Dream
6. Thunder High on the Mountain
7. Ceremony
8. Cataclysmic
9. Ice 9
10. Sleep Walk [Santo & Johnny cover]
11. Cool #9
12. Headrush
13. (Drum Solo)
14. What Happens Next
15. Super Funky Badass
16. Always With Me, Always With You
17. Summer Song
18. Crowd Chant [encore]
19. Surfing With The Alien [encore]

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