That JOE SATRIANI and STEVE VAI were far from finished raving was proven on the recently released ‘G3 Reunion Live’ album that was recorded live in Los Angeles with Eric Johnson early last year.
The concept that Satriani once came up with and then worked out with Steve Vai to present a fully catered evening of guitar virtuosity with some of the best guitarists in the world has proven to be extremely successful since the very beginning in the late nineties.
Yet there always seemed to be an unconscious desire to be part of one band together again, in addition to the solo performances with their own accompanists.
After working on their own musical careers for about fifty years, the two decided to join forces. With guitarist Pete Thorn, bass beast Marco Mendoza and Kenny Aronoff, one of the world’s most sought-after drummers, a dream line-up was formed and that long-cherished wish has now become reality.
For a while, egos had to be parked, but of course the name of the band had to refer to the two main characters that it is all about. Monday night, the Netherlands experienced the live premiere of the SATCHVAI BAND.
The hustle and bustle around the station area and on the J.C. Boulevard is enormous. It is the same evening that an exceptionally cheerful Robbie Williams wins over his fans again in the nearby Arena and John Fogerty celebrates with his children in the far from sold out ZiggoDome that he has been able to regain his rights to a lot of self-written material after years of legal wrangling.
A long time ago, Fogerty had his performances in America pre-warmed by Nashville native NED EVETT who has been given a similar task as then as Special Guest tonight.
Evett has been invited to perform a few shows during this European tour at his request, but will also be performing a few shows in smaller venues himself in the coming weeks.
He is therefore allowed to officially open this evening and will do so completely independently with the help of a few pedals, buttons and all kinds of technical tricks. Evett is a creative jack-of-all-trades who has thrown himself into all kinds of styles but mainly likes to orient himself in the direction of the blues.
His voice does well in ‘Message To You’ while his slide glides smoothly over the glass neck of his guitar. A glass neck, so to speak, and for convenience he has named himself ‘Master of the Glass-Necked Guitar’.
The audience takes their seats in the hall while some of them attentively follow the actions on stage when ‘Mars River Delta 2128’ sounds. During the solid ‘Rockstar’, different rhythms seem to have been mixed up in the rhythm box, but the American musician does not let himself be disturbed.
On the big screen at the back, certain things will not be completely synchronized tonight, but the opening of the SATCHVAI BAND is rock solid.
For the brand new ‘I Wanna Play My Guitar’, Glenn Hughes was called in to help in the studio, but he is currently busy with Black Country Communion, which was performed in Tilburg last week. That is why Marco Mendoza is the one who will be providing the vocal role for this track tonight.
It takes some getting used to seeing the two guitar heroes on the side really take a step back while Kenny Aronoff creates a massive drum sound as only he can.
As expected, there will not be much more in it vocally, because the also brand new ‘Sea Of Emotion, Pt. 1’ is an instrumental in the characteristic style of Satriani and the recognizable sound of Vai. Will there also be a ‘Part 2’? In any case, the first impression of this ‘new’ band can truly be called excellent.
Satriani will leave the stage for a moment to give Steve Vai all the space he needs, who will then let ‘Zeus In Chains’ resound through the room, followed by the funky fusion of ‘Little Pretty’ that Vai released three years ago on his album ‘Inviolate’.
The visuals on the screen would rather be replaced by the hands of the master touching his guitar strings. Instead, we are shown old video footage of clips, interspersed with mountain landscapes or symbols from Greek mythology or Egyptian culture.
Sometimes there are images of Satriani with his former accompanists playing different music than what is being produced on stage here tonight. I must have thought that ZZ Satriani’s name should also be added. Of course, his live performances in ‘Surfing With The Alien’ and ‘Flying in a Blue Dream’ are greeted with great enthusiasm and followed closely.
It is always striking how quickly the intros of the compositions that can now be labelled as classics in the world of amplified guitar are recognised.
Satriani is not very talkative. “For entertainment you have to go to the neighbours”, you can see him thinking. He cannot remember whether it is the second or third time, but he is happy to be back here in this “cool place”.
It is his introduction of ‘Ice Nine’ with which he lets the temperature in the room rise.
It is exactly thirteen years ago, to the exception of a few weeks, that we were blown away by his ‘Always With Me, Always With You’ and were enchanted by Steve Vai who performed his epic ‘For The Love of God’ here.
The feeling will be familiar to many of the visitors and it actually seems for a moment as if time has stood still. The big difference now is that both support each other in a phenomenal way and show how strong the friendship between the two has remained after all these years.
It was once Satriani who taught Vai the tricks of the trade and it would later be Steve Vai who convinced a major record company to offer him a lucrative contract.
It was once business interests with a lot of money involved, but the friendship always remained unconditional. Of course, Vai shows his ‘teeth’ with his three-headed Hydra on which he solos as only he can. Literally all the functions of this bizarre guitar monster are demonstrated.
The top one has twelve strings, the middle one has seven strings but with two humbuckers and a floating vibrato and the third neck plays the role of bass guitar so that for a few minutes with heavy, clumsy bass tones the current state of the music complex can be tested.
According to the guitarist there would even be a ‘climax control’ attached to it so this must undoubtedly be the climax and this evening has really flown by.
The entire band is on stage for the encores in which Metallica’s ‘Enter Sandman’ and a somewhat obligatory rendition of ‘Born To Be Wild’ are played, but in which the other guitarist Pete Thorn is allowed to show his best side, so that it still reminds us a bit of G3.
Some things you simply shouldn’t want to change. But we would like to hear more of that new band in the future and especially experience it live.
