SatchVai Band
Saturday, 15 July 2025, from 9:30 PM to 11:45 PM
Pordenone / Parco San Valentino / Italy
Sometimes things happen in the world of rock and roll that seem highly unlikely. And yet they do. Joe Satriani and Steve Vai are old pals, of course. Their partnership is practically a given — going all the way back to the days when Vai used to take lessons from Satriani. They’ve toured together multiple times under the G3 banner, which meant three guitars, three guitarists: both of these guitar legends plus a third, more or less chosen by mutual agreement. Anyone who remembers that distant 9 July 2004 at Hala Tivoli will recall that the third man on that occasion was Robert Fripp — who sent more than half the audience heading for the exits. As for G3, the project released a new live album this year, its second overall, with Eric Johnson again stepping in as the third guitarist.
This time around, the two heavyweights decided to form a proper band — SatchVai Band. The financial outlay for a tour called “Surfing With The Hydra” is significantly lower, while the ticket revenue is essentially the same as if they’d come to Europe under the G3 flag and had to pay a fee to a third guitarist plus at least two support acts. At the end of the day, for anyone attending these kinds of tours, the main draw has always been just the two of them. Joe and Steve. For the backing crew, they brought in a third guitarist — Pete Thorn — who was tasked with phrasing and holding down the lighter passages, though he was also given the spotlight twice during the Pordenone show to let his own virtuosity shine through proper guitar solos. That was a serious heads-up for us that his musical background and output are worth digging into. The rhythm section was absolutely stellar. Satriani kept Kenny Aronoff in the fold — Kenny had already been with Joe on his last European tour the previous year. And on bass: an old friend — Marco Mendoza, someone we’ve crossed paths with in countless bands over the years (from Thin Lizzy to Whitesnake and on to The Dead Daisies), as well as on his own solo runs. In a word: a genuine legend.
Things kicked off at exactly half past nine in the evening. A massive screen at the back of the festival stage, with projections to the left and right. First to arrive onstage were Mendoza, Thorn, and Aronoff, followed shortly by the most sought-after pair of the evening — Satriani and Vai. Mendoza stepped right up to the mic as the band launched into I Wanna Play My Guitar, the single Vai and Satriani recorded together with Glenn Hughes. Mendoza is also a hell of a vocalist, and they made full use of that. Vai and Satriani stood in the centre, shoulder to shoulder, like two brothers — having an absolute blast. The opening stretch, which served as a kind of catalyst for the band to find its onstage footing and warm up, did exactly what you’d expect: it got a near-sold-out crowd of around 3,500 on their feet. Seated everywhere, mind you. Every direction you looked.
The sound was thunderous and excellent — especially if you were sitting somewhere in the middle of the venue. The chemistry between the two masters was phenomenal, and to put it plainly, the show was breathtaking. None of that is new information, I know. Once again, this is the kind of performance that’s almost impossible to capture in words alone. You simply have to feel it for yourself. Live. Over and over again. Whether we’re watching either of these guys in their own solo settings, or back at that G3 show 21 years ago at Hala Tivoli. The suggestion that a first joint studio album might even be in the works was backed up almost immediately by another new track — The Sea Of Emotion, Pt. 1 — and then the stage belonged to Steve Vai (a powerful, dramatic Zeus In Chains, followed by another track from Inviolate — the strikingly contrasting Little Pretty, for which he picked up a semi-acoustic guitar with a stunning psychedelic paint job).
Vai announced that celebrating his birthday right there at the Pordenone show was none other than the illustrious Joe Satriani himself — who’d just turned 69, though he looks at least 15 years younger. The perfect song followed. Satriani returned to the stage at Vai’s cue and the band tore into his Ice Nine. It’s a joy to watch how they chase each other. Effortlessly, really. Almost on autopilot. The harmonising is extraordinary, even through the most technically demanding passages — as if they’re copying from each other’s sheet. After a left-right artillery exchange of top-tier solo acrobatics, the set transitioned into Vai’s The Crying Machine — two songs in one, in other words. The band then pulled back out of that merger and returned to the main Ice Nine riff. Which meant, for instance, that Satriani fired off his solo inside Vai’s The Crying Machine, while Vai returned the favour inside Ice Nine. The same applied to other tracks throughout the evening, which gained a whole new level of energetic charge from these playful injections by both ultra-virtuosos — touching the audience in fresh, previously unexplored ways. Magical. Intense. Spellbinding. Hypnotic, even.
The only minus of the evening had nothing to do with any of the performers — it fell squarely on the cameraman, who put too much effort into presenting the quintet’s work in an evenhanded way. When Vai was soloing, or when Satriani was soloing, the camera lingered for just a few seconds before cutting away to the other band members onstage. The focus should have been on the fine mechanics of both masters’ guitar acrobatics. That’s the main theatre — the reason both of them have built such massive followings around the world, and why people show up to their concerts specifically for that guitar mastery.
Vai didn’t forget to pull on that ‘Bolshevik’ cap again as he performed Teeth Of the Hydra with his three-necked hydra guitar. That part of the spectacle was undoubtedly one of the highlights of the whole show. Mendoza practically ‘stepped behind the curtain’ during that number, since the bottom neck of the hydra is set up as a bass (part fretless, part fretted), and Vai was essentially functioning as a one-man band.
The concert made clear that throughout the tour, Joe Satriani holds a slight creative edge. The setlist featured more of his tracks; Vai performed six, three of them from his most recent album, and in some ways predictably Tender Surrender, plus of course that mandatory moment of his artistic perfectionism — a nine-minute version of the one and only For The Love Of God.
Satriani, for his part, seasoned the repertoire with his best-known tracks — the ones his audience absolutely loves. Flying In A Blue Dream remains an absolute atmospheric masterpiece, and the man simply keeps confirming that he is the king of sustaining extraordinary musicality while integrating his own brand of technically complex superiority. Mendoza, who doesn’t have a great deal to do in that particular track, provided a strikingly contrasting anchor with bass lines that were practically drilling into the instrument. Melody comes first with Satriani, and in that respect he’s the most accessible of the guitar string-pullers — for everyone, including the less demanding listener. No less fantastic was the title track from the immortal Surfing With the Alien, followed by the exceptional new Sahara, where he and Vai stretched the track and elevated it with added passages to entirely new dimensions. “Are you ready for boogie?” was the opening call to the party that was Satch Boogie, then came the gorgeous If I Could Fly, and the main set closed with Satriani’s breakthrough hit — Always With Me, Always With You. Every track grew in context through added solos, either from Vai (on Satriani’s songs) or from Satriani (on Vai’s songs).
The outro of Always With Me, Always With You was extended by the band with a jam on the opening motif of the Beatles classic With A Little Help From My Friends. At the end, Satriani introduced all the members of the group, and then Vai introduced him with: “And our very own birthday boy — Joe Satriani!”
The encore brought Crowd Chant and then the send-off with the classic Born To Be Wild, where Mendoza stretched his vocal cords one more time. Worth adding: the rhythm section was brilliant throughout. Aronoff didn’t get his slot for a drum solo, but Vai and Satriani did let him off the leash a few times to show off the sheer quality of his rolls in transitions and outros. And that was exactly how this incredible party ended.
This Vai and Satriani combination is something you absolutely have to see live. Words don’t cut it. If you’re a fan, a guitar enthusiast, a deep follower of both artists, you’ll soak up even more from this show than the person writing these lines — but this concert experience is worth the sin for anyone who is even mildly moved by rock and roll in their daily life. And from the eyes and ears of a complete layperson, here’s the take: simple. You show up with no expectations and you leave the spectacle utterly shaken. That’s it. If you missed this SatchVai Band gathering in Pordenone, drive over to Šibenik on 1 August and 2 August — two back-to-back shows are on the cards. Especially if you happen to be somewhere along the Dalmatian coast at that time.
Authors: Edita Klemen & Aleš Podbrežnik
Photography: Aleš Podbrežnik
SatchVai Band – setlist:
1. I Wanna Play My Guitar
2. The Sea of Emotion, Pt. 1
3. Zeus in Chains
4. Little Pretty
5. Ice Nine / The Crying Machine
6. Flying in a Blue Dream
7. Surfing With the Alien
8. Sahara
9. Tender Surrender
10. Teeth of the Hydra
11. Satch Boogie
12. If I Could Fly
13. For the Love of God
14. Always With Me, Always With You
—encore—
15. Crowd Chant
16. Born to Be Wild
