Guitar legend Joe Satriani kicked off his Australian tour in Perth in typical Satch boogie style on Saturday night in front of an enthusiastic and packed crowd, a show filled with memorable highlights and a musical journey that took us all the way back to his early material as well as his latest from “What Happens Next”.
A show at the Astor Theatre meant an early night, even on a Saturday evening as it gave punters a chance to relax and either hit the road on home or kick off onto other things. It’s not often we get that luxury and many took advantage of it. But the main reason fans gathered at the Mt. Lawley venue which has now become almost synonymous with some of the best rock shows coming through town in recent years was to witness the magic of Joe Satriani, a guitar player that some of us either grew up listening to or became a fan along the way. I drop into the latter even though I started listening to his very first albums at the start. “Surfing With The Alien” certainly did it for me as it has done for many others and while I have now seen Mr Satriani on several occasions, this song never gets old – especially live.
With no support act for the evening, it was a pleasure to get the full Satriani experience as he kicked off the show with a couple of newbies in the form of the opening 2 tracks from his latest work “What Happens Next”. The fast paced, high energy rocker that is aptly titled “Energy” combined with the groove foot stomping “Catbot” in all earnest is very much signature Satriani stuff. Even in this part of his career some 35 years or so years later he still manages to come up with some truly imaginative and all out rocking tunes. From his newest album, Satriani played a few numbers including the wonderfully dynamic “Cherry Blossoms” but with so much material to choose from, there was also a balance of his earlier work too.
The first of that was the iconic “Satch Boogie” which of course has become a staple of Satriani’s set. Even to this day this odd song sits among one of the most interesting pieces you will ever hear and live it always goes down so well, Satriani always adding a few tweaks here and there as he tends to do with older songs just to keep it fresh. “Flying In A Blue Dream” also made an early entrance with a brilliant video screen backdrop of a spaceship flying through the universe. This added production was a brilliant idea and really added to the whole show as a whole experience, even if it did sometimes distract you with some amazing footage including some old video of Satriani during “Summer Song”, back when he had hair!
Continuing on, as mentioned before there was a balance of old and new on the setlist but there also, as is with many artists of this magnitude with an extensive back catalogue, is some truly iconic albums that unfortunately didn’t make the cut including some favorites off “Crystal Planet” and the enigmatic self titled album.It was good to see however some material from one of my favorites, “Strange Beautiful Music”, even if it was a cover – “Sleepwalker”, originally by the Farina brothers. That is a trip back in time and easy to see the influence of a song like that in Satriani’s own music.
Backing the San Francisco guitarist was Bryan Beller on bass and Joe Travers on drums providing the backbone to the operation but the guy that almost stole the show was Mike Keneally on keyboards and guitars. Mike’s ability to multi-task between the two instruments providing both rhythm sections and atmosphere plus showcase some truly mind blowing guitar playing including his own solos was a show in and of itself. Even playing off of Satriani where at a couple of points during the show they dueled in some spectacular guitar play off was jaw dropping stuff, as someone who wasn’t necessarily the focal point of the show, he made it his own in his own way.
After intermissions, encore breaks and drum solos, the final part of the show came to head with “Crowd Chant”, which has now become a favorite for the fan interaction part and of course the much anticipated “Surfing With The Alien” which is still one of his best tracks to date. The video of the silver surfer behind the stage was brilliant and could have been a show on it’s own and as the band tore it up and built to a climactic end, the crowd roared with joy and appreciation after witnessing what could be one of the top shows of 2018 in Perth.
At the beginning of the show Satriani did mention the fact it was 30 years since his first appearance in Perth, a fact we discussed during our interview a few months prior to the tour and it’s amazing that Perth has been on almost every, if not every tour since. Not something I would ever take for granted and something Perth fans should definitely appreciate given that a lot of tours as of late have pulled the west coast off the tour schedules. That being said, I can’t wait to see that Satch Boogie one more time!
PHOTO GALLERY
Photos by Linda Dunjey Photography
JOE SATRIANI
WHERE TO NEXT AUSTRALIA TOUR
HQ, ADELAIDE MONDAY NOVEMBER 26
FORUM THEATRE, MELBOURNE WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 28
CANBERRA THEATRE FRIDAY NOVEMBER 30
STATE THEATRE, SYDNEY SATURDAY DECEMBER 1
THE TIVOLI, BRISBANE SUNDAY DECEMBER 2
For complete tour and ticket information, visit: satriani.com & livenation.com.au
