Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Venue: Hala Tivoli / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: 10.11.2010
Attendance: 2500
Ticket price: 39,00€ (floor) / 34,00€ (stands)
The founding father of guitar rock, the one and only Joe Satriani, knows no rest! Every two years he drops a studio album, and that sends the man and his crew off on a regular tour of the world’s concert stages. Satch is one of those people in the music business that absolutely everybody loves. His music carries the weight of a pioneer, yet it’s highly listenable, instantly easy to grasp, and has no time for wild adventures into musical experimentation. Joe is a proven craftsman. His sound has been defined for years, and the man isn’t setting off seismic shocks of a new musical revolution with his latest studio efforts. Instead, he diligently looks after his loyal audience, so they’re always well fed and satisfied whenever a new album from their guitar hero comes out.
So Joe Satriani has landed in Ljubljana once again. He last stopped by way back on 09.07.2004, as part of the G3 project, alongside buddies Steve Vai and Robert Fripp. This time he came with his new album “Black Swans And Wormhole Wizards” (2010) in his pocket and the lineup that recorded it in the studio. Touring with Satch are the inseparable drummer Jeff Campitelli, the one-of-a-kind keyboardist Mike Keneally, known for working with Frank Zappa and Steve Vai – with the latter he already played Hala Tivoli once before, on 13.04.2000 – bassist Allen Whitman, and the “spare” guitarist Galen Hansen, whom Satriani calls into the team only for tours.
Satriani also brought along blues guitarist Ned Evett, who warmed up the crowd for Satch on this tour and used the occasion to present his new studio album “Afraid 4U”, out this December. Ned Evett & Triple Double is a blues rock trio that proved to be a wildly fortunate pick over 40 minutes of playing. Evett has a real knack for having fun, and he broke the ice between the band and the audience in no time. It started with the look alone: fine curls in a lush mane that recalled Leslie West of the legendary hard-hitting blues rockers Mountain, but a utopian Leslie, the slimmer variety. Ned’s special trademark is the strict use of a “fretless” guitar (read: no frets). No need to guess that he’s a true stage wild man who understands the word “switch off”, which is why Triple Double work and hit so well live. The short set left an extremely positive mark, and Ned presented himself as a sort of modern-day herald of the fretless guitar blues rock “(r)evolution”. As a curiosity, let’s mention the other two members. Drummer Kofi Baker is the son of the famous Ginger Baker (Cream), and bassist Malcolm Bruce? Son of the no less famous Jack Bruce (Cream). No need to guess twice that the rhythm section skillfully filled the available space every time Ned “hung” himself on his guitar neck. One hell of an opening party!
Satch strode onstage with his crew a little before nine in the evening. He was in his standard “young punk” getup, and he didn’t forget to slap his sunglasses back on, either. At 54, Satriani turns into a complete kid onstage incredibly fast. Apart from a few “neck creases”, you’ll struggle to find a single wrinkle on his face, and in his gestures and grimaces he’s mischievously youthful and playful from start to finish. The rowdy, in-great-spirits Joe put together a setlist for connoisseurs this time. True, the bulk of the repertoire was devoted to promoting the new album “Black Swans And Wormhole Wizards”, but the man also pleasantly surprised everyone by including some songs he hadn’t played live in a long time.
I’m thinking mainly of the return of songs like Why, War and, surprisingly, Summer Song, which Joe added at the end of the show (all three from the album “The Extremist”). The gig opened intensely and just as you’d expect, with one of the most beloved songs, Ice 9. Right after it came a jump to the debut with Hordes Of Locust (an early surprise in the set) and on to the universally adored Flying In A Blue Dream. The crowd, of course, was anything but left cold. It was one of those shows where all you can do is stare and marvel at what the maestro is doing right in front of you.
As expected, the new songs from “Black Swans And Wormhole Wizards” also work far better onstage than in their studio versions. Then again, all of Joe Satriani’s music is made to be played live. Only then does it come fully alive in its mission and hit the listener especially hard. The new songs were carefully slotted in among the classics, and the show was held at high tension throughout. Satch spiced up the gig with a bluesy excursion in the new Littleworth Lane, where he also tried his hand at the harmonica. Andalusia also burned brilliantly in the set, opening with an innocent flamenco bit, and the band cranked up the atmosphere through an intense build, round after round, to a final “crescendo” that of course went to the guitar wizard’s new “extra-terrestrial” solo escape.
Two full hours of top-class playing that never dropped in intensity, with the extreme ease of a big-show spectacle such as comes naturally to Joe! Two full hours the grateful audience swayed along eagerly, and they were anything but stingy with thunderous ovations. Early on, the sound played tricks. The bass was too loud and the guitar sounded totally indistinct, but by Light Years Away the sound improved radically. I don’t know how it sounded at the back and in the stands, but on the far right, some 7-8 m from the stage, you could barely make out the keyboards in the mix.
The show was fresh proof that Satriani is a great gentleman who doesn’t let the people at his gigs catch their breath for even a moment while he drives his guitar rally onstage. He’s playful, untameable, positive all the way through, and everything flying out of his instrument sounds like it was played with unbelievable ease. This time the audience was made up of 99% extremely curious “doctors of guitar-playing wizardry” and 1% of their plus-ones, and even those looked completely lost in the hall during the show.
Alongside a great show, I’d like to thank not only Joe and his band, but also the vehement autocrats of the City Municipality of Ljubljana, who recently adopted a measure to charge for parking in front of Hala Tivoli at night, too. Can you picture the scene: hunkering in an endless queue in the middle of a cold autumn downpour, with a machine standing somewhere far, far away, waiting to gobble up your euro? That’s how the Slovenian capital once again showed great hospitality, not only to visitors from all corners of Slovenia, who had a long trip home ahead of them, but also to everyone who drove in from Austria, Croatia and Italy to enjoy the gig. And who still believes, after everything we’ve lived through since 1991, that this money will ever be invested in the public good?
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist
1. Ice 9 2. Hordes of Locusts 3. Flying in a Blue Dream 4. Light Years Away 5. Memories 6. War 7. Premonition 8. Satch Boogie 9. Revelation 10. Pyrrhic Victoria 11. Crystal Planet 12. The Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing 13. Dream Song 14. Andalusia 15. Littleworth Lane 16. Why 17. Wind in the Trees 18. Always With Me, Always With You 19. Big Bad Moon —encore— 20. Crowd Chant 21. Summer Song
Photo Gallery
