Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Palazzo dello sport / Tarvisio (Trbiž) / Italy
Concert date: 07/27/2011
Attendance: 500
Ticket price: €38.00 / €43.00
Joe Satriani, the indestructible guitar hero who played Hala Tivoli in Ljubljana last November on his “Black Swans And Wormhole Wizards” tour, came back to the old continent this summer for just two shows. One of them was in the Italian border town of Tarvisio (Trbiž in Slovenian), a stone’s throw from the tri-border point near Rateče. If you’re one of those who go to watch the ski jumping in the valley below the Ponce peaks, you already know where I’m headed.
This time Satch flew into Europe from San Francisco the day before the show and checked into Hotel Slon in the middle of Ljubljana, where he also went back after the gig. Clearly the Slovenian capital has wormed its way into his heart after the good memories of past tour adventures. Joe’s crew rolled up to the Palazzeto dello sport a little past eight in the evening in a van, which dropped them at one of the “secret” entrances into the Trbiž sports temple. Thanks to the lousy weather that has been dragging on through the last days of this July, the concert was moved at the last minute from the town square into the sports hall.
It’s half past eight and the hall is yawning with emptiness. Maybe 300 people in total. The keenest fans barely filled the first five rows, while everyone else was still happily chatting over their “cups” of beer. “Cup” is a welcome word here for the well-known experience of the painfully meager portions of beer you get when you order in Italy.
Joe came to this show in a low-budget edition, with a shortened setlist and without guitarist Galen Henson in the lineup. So on stage he was backed by just a trio: Allen Whitman (bass), Jeff Campitelli (drums) and Mike Keneally (keyboards). The band hit the stage ten minutes later than officially announced, so five minutes to half past nine. Some 500 punters woke up as the quartet waved from the stage, and we were already swaying happily to the opener Ice 9. The setlist was similar to the one we got in Ljubljana in November, except it was 20 minutes shorter. A lovely treat with the classic Hordes Of Locusts is followed by the universally admired and revered Flying In A Blue Dream, and then, via Light Years Away, the guys finally get around to presenting the newest studio album.
Satriani, who turned a solid 55 less than two weeks before coming to Trbiž, of course doesn’t show it one bit on stage. Maybe 35. Seriously. With his boyish getup and a nearly wrinkle-free face (a few of them are hidden, naturally, behind his “rally” shades), the bulk of that eternally youthful feel comes purely from the way he carries himself on stage. The gestures, the bounciness, the way he talks to the crowd, which tears down every barrier in an instant, because Joe comes across as incredibly down-to-earth, never aloof for a second, and so as a stage figure he’s accessible to everyone. With tireless confidence and a laser-sharp focus the whole way through, he drives his famous theater into a show full of fun.
And the crowd? Totally thrilled. Everybody loves Satriani. Because he keeps it simple, and at the same time his music, which sparked a big revolution in guitar rock in the second half of the eighties, is highly listenable and quick to grasp, since it doesn’t put up with any especially deviant adventures into the world of musical experimentation. Joe is a proven craftsman. His music has been defined for years, and the man isn’t causing seismic shocks of a new musical revolution with fresh studio achievements. Instead, he diligently looks after his loyal audience, making sure they’re always well fed and satisfied whenever a new album from their guitar hero comes out. This time too, the quartet left the stage in an ecstatic mood, full of positive energy vibes and huge enthusiasm and approval for the character and work of their guitar champ.
The ever-so-friendly musician nevertheless showed a bit more professional routine and reserve than in Ljubljana in November, as he was slightly less talkative between songs.
Otherwise, as expected, a magical evening all around. Satriani and his crew don’t let you down. It’s almost pointless to even start a debate, but still, instrumentalists this seasoned can pull off witty jam duels with their eyes closed. The most special highlight of the night, the cherry on top of all the cherries, came right at the end of the regular set, when Satriani first played a version of his famous hit Always With Me, Always With You, which for two minutes stayed in the regular manner, close to the studio original. Just when it looked like the quartet was about to wrap the number up, it only then really opened up into a phenomenal jam, where the quartet sailed into the main motif of With A Little Help From My Friends and Keneally and Satch traded some witty combinations of soloing hand skills. By the end, the song clocked in at ten minutes of outstanding fun. Elsewhere the stage also rang with newer ones like Dream Song, Premonition and God Is Crying, plus the obligatory antics that enthroned Satriani long ago, like The Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing and Satch Boogie, while Supercolossal found its place in the setlist again, along with Why in War. The band closed the show with the expected crowd-rouser Crowd Chant and the classic Summer Song.
The hall served as an evacuation point in case of bad weather. And a downpour did hit in the meantime, so the move indoors definitely paid off. That said, the show lost a bit of its lavish stage spectacle this way. Especially because the stage in the hall was much smaller and lower, and the lighting was more modest too. The spotlights were set up much lower compared to the main stage on the town square, where the concert was originally supposed to take place.
The hall doesn’t have the best acoustics either. The first four songs especially sounded unfortunate and fell victim to general sound diffusion, until the sound got tweaked a little. So it was advisable to stand closer to the front of the crowd, and the organizer could also have partly fixed the poor acoustics if they’d come up with a big curtain to hang from the ceiling behind the stage, behind Campitelli’s drums. Anyway, you had to find the right “sweet spot” and then everything was totally okay.
All in all, this show confirmed once again that Joe Satriani with his top-notch backing crew remains the number one live attraction, one that fills you with a flux of positive energy and takes you, virtuously, into a hypnotic world of outstanding guitar wizardry. That world is carefully tended the whole way through with a pinch of healthy and sparkling, playfully slapstick atmosphere, where the musicians don’t forget to make fools of themselves too, and of course there’s also a mischievous dash of juicy spontaneity and unpredictability that adds that all-important spice to the full flavor of the unique “Joe Satriani theater” of guitar assault (and madness)!
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
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