The crowd at Thebarton Theatre, while definitely being more male than female orientated, was quite a mixed bag. With plenty of old rockers who appreciated Joe Satriani when he first came out, to teenagers looking to witness guitar greatness in action.
Many people lingered outside during the cover band Flight 86’s performance, and on entering it wasn’t difficult to see why. The music was 70s-80s style pop rock, performed by guys of the same era. While the music has definitely been heard before, the band was solid and came across as old friends having a good time.
As the lights dimmed for the start of Joe Satriani’s performance, the theatre began filling and the crowd’s excitement could clearly be felt. Joe came on with his trademark shades and bald head to the cheers of the audience. He picked up his signature red Ibanez JS series guitar and launched into a new song I just want to rock. His guitar screamed to the backing of his three piece band and robot sounding synth vocals.
What struck me from the start of his performance was the unpretentious simplicity of the stage. Just him, his backing band and some cool lights, which made a refreshing change from the gimmicks and flashiness of some other acts in the genre.
The third song was Satch Boogie, an old blues inspired Satriani favourite. He went on to play a mixture of old songs and new songs from his recently released album Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock. While blazing on some tracks, he didn’t over do it, bringing it down with some acoustic backed bluesy tracks, as well as 80s popular hits like Flying in a Blue Dream and Time Machine. The set was also broken up with a solo by bassist Stu Hamm, playing some pounding slap funk riffs as well as speedy finger tapping solos, making his bass sound like something else entirely.
Satriani showed that he has mastered his guitar in such a way that it is an extension of himself. He used his guitar as his voice, telling stories to the audience of beautiful melodies, screaming solos and sounds that you didn’t think were possible from a guitar. Whether it is to your musical taste or not, nobody attending that night would deny they had witnessed greatness.
