show review
kugez Wed Mar 16 '05
264
Enmore Theatre, Sydney,
Rank: 10 Posted: Sun Oct 23, '05 1:00 am
JOE fantastic show would definlty go again awesome guitar playing cant wait to see g3

markcinque Wed Mar 16 '05
264
Enmore Theatre, Sydney,
Rank: 10 Posted: Mon Mar 28, '05 6:40 pm
satch was awesome and the sound was perfect- one of the best shows ive been to..come back soon..with the G3! :)

didja Wed Mar 16 '05
264
Enmore Theatre, Sydney,
Rank: 10 Posted: Fri Mar 18, '05 7:48 pm
Wow. I have been waiting 17 long years to see Joe, since buying Surfin' with the alien and subsequent albums. I made a 900+ kilometer trip to see him with my 10 year-old daughter who is also a big Joe fan (bigger now) a 3 AND A HALF hour show was (adjectives fail me) awsome to the nth degree. My daughter was quite litterally speechless (an unusual occurance in a 10 year old girl) and has doubled her guitar playing efforts (look out Joe) Fantastic. Well worth the 12 hours of driving. What's with the rubber chicken?

peatemark Wed Mar 16 '05
264
Enmore Theatre, Sydney,
Rank: 10 Posted: Thu Mar 17, '05 6:33 pm

The fellas below have said it in detail, So i will summarize

a) Joe - you are a hard core animalistic fucking machine of guitar playing muscial brilliance! Yeah baby! b) Joe is God! c) Bring on the G3

What an awesome awesome awesome awesome night!!!!

You know you have a totally hardcore fan base when grown men are jumping up and down 'singing' completely instrumental songs!

AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME!

Even better was meeting him in person the next day

Joe for PM!

I support the dudes below - SORT OUT JOHN PETRUCCI AND SEND HIM AND YA G3 BROTHERS DOWN HERE ASAP!

chrisgray Wed Mar 16 '05
264
Enmore Theatre, Sydney,
Rank: 10 Posted: Thu Mar 17, '05 12:02 pm

Well....................... What the hell can i say. Im not going to go into the same length as what these guys have. What a night. Joe just blew the roof off the enmore theatre and also im sure blew everyone away in it. Out of all the extended jam sequences in a lot of the songs, two that ring out in my head still now, two days later, were the improv at the end of strange and also the improv at the end of moroccan sunset. Absolutely freaking awsome. THe whole show and experience of seeing the great SATCH in concert only a few feet from me was just awe inspiring. Even better than seeing him in the mid late 90's after JOE Satriani tour. Every note every lick and every run just done so effortlessly. Also to here joe break into a bit of Machine Gun (al la all hail jimi) during the middle section of searching. I thought something like that might have beenon the cards considering the band of gypsies sound he has on the record during the middle section of searching.

PLEASE JOE ................. DONT LEAVE ANOTHER 8 TO 10 YEARS IN BETWEEN YOUR NEXT VISIT HERE. I PLEAD WITH YOU ON BEHALF OF ALL YOUR ADORING OZ FANS. COME BACK SOON !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ferretallica Wed Mar 16 '05
264
Enmore Theatre, Sydney,
Rank: 8 Posted: Thu Mar 17, '05 8:06 am

[ARRRGH! DAMN THING REMOVES FORMATTING SO APOLOGIES IN ADVANCE FOR THE LACK OF PARAGRAPHING]

What an utterly amazing show! As a guitarist the excitement that goes with seeing Joe Satriani live goes beyond what mere words can describe, but since there's no reviews on here yet I feel it's my duty to get the ball rolling.

First of all, I was obviously misinformed in that I thought The Screaming Jets were going to be the support act for the night. It mattered not though as a city starved for truly great musicians combined with the sheer aural ecstasy of Joe behind a guitar meant this was an audience that didn't need any warming up! The atmosphere was already electric when some casual noodling let the crowd know it was time to hold on to their seats before the band launched into one of my personal favourites "Up In The Sky".

There was a steady balance of Joe's heavier up-tempo numbers and more sublime songs but one thing in common throughout the show was that the guitar assault simply didn't let up. Being the "Is There Love In Space?" tour there were naturally a few tracks from his latest album such as "Bamboo" the title track itself, but long-time fans were also rewarded with classic Satch numbers like "Flying In A Blue Dream", "Cool #9" and the awesome 'encore' finisher "Surfing With The Alien", by the end of which Joe was met with one of the most sincere standing ovations I've ever witnessed at a concert. There was even the odd obscurity (by my standards) like "Strange", softer numbers like "Starry Night" and "Sleepwalk", and of course plenty of improvisation. The highlight of the night for me was his awesome live version of "Always With Me, Always With You" with a few bits of "Raspberry Jam Delta-V" thrown in for good measure. I don't have any live recordings with Satriani other than the G3 CDs and an earlier Deep Purple bootleg but I'm going to be on the look-out now after hearing that.

If there was any real let-down with the show it was that it felt like 90% of the songs always ended in 2 minutes of finale-shredding, 2 minutes of feedback and a 'group-slam'. Considering I sleep listening to the likes of Rusty Cooley and Buckethead it's safe to say I love my random shred spots as much as the next red-blooded guitarist, but after nearly every song was a bit much and it just dragged it out a bit. Considering the amount of improvisation and how often some of the staple songs featured extended semi-improvised soloing it just dragged it out. It's really a minor quibble and I'm sure I'll hear all hell over it but someone has to say it. A slightly shorter set with less post-song celebration and an extra song or two snuck in might be worth considering.

Comparisons will naturally be drawn between this and Steve Vai's show last August by anyone who went to both in Sydney. Vai had some amazing backing musicians (MacAlpine and Sheehan in particular) who each had their own solo spots and made the whole thing feel a bit more diverse, whereas Joe basically stole the show and it was all about him from start to finish. That's not neccessarily a bad thing either! Just would have been nice to see a bit more from the other musicians, but I guess it highlights the drastically different paths taken by both Joe and Steve in getting to a similar place in instrumental guitar history. Steve is a man whose career has been built upon working with equally amazing musicians, whereas Joe is more accustomed to bringing down a ceiling on his own merit. I have to say I appreciate the variety in their styles even more after having seen them both live, both in terms of musicianship and songwriting.

I also have to say after having been to both completely packed concerts, come on guys! You've both been down here now and you know you can sell out a venue without difficulty so no more excuses. Drag Petrucci's arse down here and let's see some G3 action soon! The only thing better than going to two amazing shows by two likewise amazing guitarists would be to see three amazing guitarists at once!

Something which seems to be lacking in concerts I've been to lately is the traditional throwing of the picks into the audience but not so here. I don't think I've ever seen so many picks up for grabs and a couple lucky punters got a drum stick each. At one point it even looked like a rubber chicken was on the cards for someone but that didn't quite eventuate. The favour was returned with a souveneir bucket hat complete with Australiana grafitti thrown on stage which Joe wore proudly for many of the songs. Joe also did a good job of involving the seated audience members, especially with the call-and-response trade-offs between Joe's guitar and those audience members able to vaguely sing along to a lick without words. It was little things like that which made it feel like you were actually at a concert rather than just watching a bunch of guys on stage.

Last of all, I stuck around after the show in the hope of getting a guitar body signed which I intend to clear-coat and have framed for my wall. There was no post-show appearance though other than for those with back-stage passes which was a bit disappointing. Thankfully I managed to convince someone to part with theirs after they'd finished with it, and I not only got my guitar signed but had the distinct pleasure and honour of meeting Joe Satriani himself. It was an amazing show already but having that guitar signed completely made my night and when I woke up this morning I was still unable to stop grinning. It's a shame that some of the people inside didn't seem to really know anything about Joe while there were some clearly avid fans waiting out front who were overlooked. One suggestion for the web site is to include details of any meet-and-greets or signings in the vicinity along with the show details so those who care don't miss out on an opportunity. A friend of mine who went to the Brisbane show wouldn't have even known about the Allans Music signing if I hadn't received an email from the Allans mailing list I joined years ago and forgot to unsubscribe from. I realise touring is very draining and you can't please everyone though, and it was great that he took the time to meet his fans at all. I even saw one guy with about half a dozen CDs, two guitar tab books and a Guitar Techniques magazine with Joe featured on the cover get them ALL signed plus ticket stubs and T-shirt without any complaint by Joe.

Overall this was easily one of the best concerts I've ever seen, and even had I not managed to get the guitar body signed I would have still walked away feeling much richer for the experience. The signing was just the icing on the proverbial cake. Now I just have to try and remember the fingerings for those double-handed tapping parts and try and work out how on Earth he gets those awesome squealing harmonic sounds on "Searching"... and that warble sound thing a couple minutes into it....

PS to Joe himself- If you haven't heard of him, check out Mattias Eklundh. I reckon he would be a natural choice for your next G3 roster. Thanks again for the signature and photo, and I hope to see you in Sydney again some time within the next year or two at the very latest!

martyn Wed Mar 16 '05
264
Enmore Theatre, Sydney,
Rank: 10 Posted: Thu Mar 17, '05 5:41 am
Nice review FerretallicA - I have to agree this is the best concert I've ever been to. And I thought the Extremist tour at Hammersmith Odeon in London in the old days was good! Having travelled a long way to Enmore to collect tickets at 10am, I felt a strong urge to hang around for the rest of the day and proceeded to wait at Door 7 with some great new friends from Wollongong. After buying some cushions and deckchairs from the local shops we were set up, and began chatting, sharing experiences, news and of course our song choices, and listening to Joe do his sound check rehearsals. After several hours we learned Joe was meeting Fans at the stage exit and we all pegged it round the back. A group of about 10 of us were lucky and honoured to meet Joe and got our ticket stubs, Vai T Shirts :-) !!! scraps of paper and arms signed, with Joe, humble as ever posing for photos with the Fans. That alone would have made the waiting worthwhile! The afternoon marched on with us signing our names on the Australian sunhat mentioned in FerretallicA's review (Ryan B, Ryan T, Ben T, Luke M, Todd P, Mitch K) - good on ya boys with the lads allowing me an honourable spot somewhere to scribble Martyn. On top was scribed "TO SATCH". Thanks to the great staff and security at the Enmore. Our dedicated group was let in early and proceeded to throw wads of $50's at the merchandising girl for T-Shirts and headed straight to Stage Front. We then got blown away by Joe's on-stage performance. I won't repeat FerretallicA's review word for word because he's pretty much described the set list to a T, though I will add: The middle-eastern intro leading to one of my all-time favourites, "Hordes of Locusts" had me ripping my vocal chords out and stomping repeatedly on them (along with most of the dance floor). I feel the extended solo'ing and jamming described in the earlier review is a very special thing because something as spontaneous and innovative as that is what Joe is all about and probably won't ever be repeated in the same way - and I don't think Joe would do this unless he felt the audience wanted it (and could handle it! :). A Shredfest if ever there was one. For me, the concert was the epitomy of Joe's best numbers (too numerous to count - I know) mixed in with the great new songs from "Is there love in Space", including the title track (some awesome wah-work). I would have loved to see Midnight, Circles, and so many, many others, but I guess there has to be a limit and all good things come to an end. The new JSX amps were great to hear and fascinating to watch from the front, seeing Satch's playing reflected off the chrome finish, yet seeing the swirling smoke and backdrop colours through the JS cutout logo. Gotta get me one of those! After much painful elbowing and mosh-pitting during the (long!) 15 min break, Joe thankfully returned with the band and at some point (I can't remember when) we took the opportunity to lob the hat on stage. Joe picked it up and honoured us all by wearing it for a number of songs, including Friends, one of my favourites. That sums up Joe's performance for me - He's always there for the audience. The finale and encore were fantastic and audience participation and crowd noise was just amazing. Driving home, Ears: Ringing, Back: Cracking, Vocal Chords: Shredded, with a big smile on my face and browsing the numerous photos on my phone, I looked forward to the Allen's music meet 'n greet the next day. The queue at Allen's today held a number of happy faces I remember from yesterday. Joe signed my JS100 and we chatted for a few special moments and I got a great pic (Thanks Stuart). I guess the only thing to top that would be for him to sign my ChromeBoy but he already did that :) SUMMARY - It doesn't get any better than this - A TOTALLY AWESOME EVENT. THANK YOU JOE and the BAND! DO IT AGAIN SOON PLEASE!