Customer Reviews

Satriani Live

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've been a Satriani fan since his first album, and especially after the release of Surfing with the Alien. My one gripe was how static and simple the support parts in his compositions were, specifically, the drums and bass. More recently I've gained a greater appreciation of why this was so. First to highlight his incomparable ability to write an amazing guitar melody, and second (and more obviously) to highlight his amazing technical virtuosity. Nevertheless, this lacking in the support areas has been addressed continually over the years, for example, with the frequent use of the unbelievable Stuart Hamm on bass.

This live CD & DVD set is by far the most dramatic step forward in the area of support, and it is what makes this a definitive Satriani live CD/DVD. Specifically, the extended versions, the jam-outs (or jam-ins), which include some very interesting stretching on Joe's part also, highlight the dynamic nature of this big step.

In recent years, Joe has used the reliable backing of bassist Matt Bissonette & Satriani stalwart drummer Jeff Campitelli. And while Bissonette is a decent and very reliable musician, he is not by any means a mind-boggling technical virtuoso, as is the aforementioned Stuart Hamm. Likewise, Campitelli had never really pressed any buttons for me as a drummer, as my leanings in that area tend to be toward the likes of guys such as Neil Peart, Vinnie Colaiuta, Terry Bozzio, etal. I have been to many G3 shows, and the energy level always seemed to be higher when Steve Vai was out with his amazing band (particularly with the likes of Billy Sheehan on bass in recent years, and Tony MacAlpine on Second Lead Guitar and Keyboards). Satriani was always reliable and perfect, but the energy never quite seemed to go through the roof, like in Vai's band.

Another G3 repeat offender, John Petrucci, guitar player for the current greatest band in the world, Dream theater, last toured with G3 with Dave LaRue on Bass and Dream Theater cohort Mike Portnoy on drums. It was much of the same thing - high energy. What would you expect from 2/3rd's of your members being Dream Theater guys?

I bring this up because now Dave LaRue is touring with Satriani and is the bass player on this live outing. And he is the one difference in the lineup. I have been familiar with LaRue's phenomenal abilities as a bass player for many years, having seen him play in the Steve Morse Band, the Dixie Dregs, as well as a previous G3 tour that Petrucci performed on as well. LaRue is not only a virtuoso who can stand toe to toe with any other bass player, but he is also a team player. When the required playing is to sit back and support & do the great support job Bissonette had done in recent years, he does it and he does it well. However, when it's time to stretch...

Then there'e Jeff Campitelli. Always has been a GOOD drummer. Well, we're hearing some stretching from him on this recording as well. This recording proves his abilities as an excellent drummer. His performance in the jam sections with LaRue and Satriani is superb.

Next there's rhythm guitarist Galen Henson. He fills in the spaces accurately, doesn't make mistakes and never gets in the way. A perfect shadow for all the holes that are hard for one guitarist, even Joe Satriani, to fill up.

And then Joe. Always amazing. But now that he's freed himself up a bit to stretch out and to play off of the other musicians more, and not always just in front of/on top of, however you want to say it, he is truly shining on another level.

I am a big fan of Rush. And one of the many great things you always notice about Rush is how well they play as an ensemble. They are all virtuosos, and they are virtuosic together, as a unit. Similarly, this ethic is displayed by Satriani's band on this live outing also.

The most important thing about this is that the wealth of new tracks from Super Colossal (one of his best CD's in years) are well performed, and the older, tried and true mainstay tracks have almost all been given a new spin, making this an ideal live performance.

Finally, Satriani's guitar tone is ridiculously amazing. This should be used to sell the JS model Ibanez & to sell whatever amp setup he is using.

Highlights: "Cool #9," "Circles" & "Always with me, Always with you." Especially the jamming: The jam-in on Cool #9 & the jam-outs on the other two tunes. For the newer songs, "One Robots Dream."

This is what I've always wanted to see Joe do, to stretch out. And now that he has done so, he's exceeded my expectations, which I did not think possible, because they were very high.

"Joe Satriani Live" is a live recording taken from one date on the "Super Colossal" album tour. To this regard, it is what it is-- this seems to be a point of contention for fans-- the set is "Super Colossal" heavy (more on that later) and the show has the flow and consistency of an individual live performance rather than a best-of a tour sort of live album. I'm actually in preference to this sort of live record, the ones that cull the best performances from various shows tend to feel less organic. The band for the tour was bassist Dave LaRue, drummer Jeff Campitelli and second guitarist Galen Henson, with the unenviable task of being the other guy with six strings on stage with Joe Satriani.

As far as the set, it is really heavy on "Super Colossal", but this shouldn't be a big surprise-- it was the tour for that record. Nine of the nineteen cuts on the record come from "Super Colossal", meaning if you didn't like that record, you're not going to like this one either in all likelihood. The other notable thing about the setlist is that beyond that it's really heavy on the early stuff with all but one song coming from Satriani's first four albums, including no less than five cuts from "Surfing With the Alien". The bottom line is that with the exception of "Cool #9" from 1995's "Joe Satriani", nothing is from any later than 1992's "The Extremist", with Satriani's four previous records totally neglected.

This was a complaint I had with the tour and it also feeds into this album as well, it's a shame to see Satriani pandering to the endless desire amongst fans to hear the hits-- I've never been one for touring jukebox shows and while he does go heavy on the new material and somewhat avoids this trap, how many times do we need to hear "The Extremist" or "The Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing"? Yeah, they're great songs, but they've been played to death, and while some of Satriani's signature songs retain their vitality (his performance on "Surfing With the Alien", for example, is always downright awe inspiring and certainly "Cool #9" picks up a great extended jam for an intro and has a sense of looseness that plays nicely to the material and the live setting, but then again, it's not really an "old classic"), you can pretty much feel that some of the older cuts are ready for retirement ("Ice 9", "Circles" and the aformentioned "The Extremist"). The material from "Super Colossal" tends to fare better-- good thing, since there's so much of it. The title track turns out to be bigger than life, "One Robot's Dream" picks up a bit of a funky lilting groove, and "Crowd Chant" is both as goofy and entertaining as you'd assume from the album.

In the end, the album is what it is-- I don't regret buying it and the tour was a blast to see, but I'd've loved to have seen some material from some of Satriani's later albums in both.

Ugh. This is the very first Joe S. release that I have been disappointed with. First, I don't know about any one else, but the CD is messed up. Red Shift Riders was the first actual track on the CD, while the first track listed on the packaging materials is Flying in a Blue Dream, which turned out to be the third track. Essentially these two tracks were swapped on the recording. Not sure how the heck that happens.

Secondly, the track list is just poor. How many times do we need Flying in a Blue Dream, Satch Boogie, Circles, Always With Me Always With You and Mystical Potato Head on live releases? While the new CD is well represented, what about Is There Love in Space and Strange Beautiful Music. I was dying to hear songs from those albums live. Joe, as much as we love your back catalog, please change up the set list to include some of your newer material on your next live CD!

The production seems to be adequate, though I was disappointed to hear a few blips from Joe himself on Redshift Riders. In all, I was hoping this would be a great CD to add to my Joe collection. Alas, it's just average.

OK... I was a little skeptical at seeing yet ANOTHER live satriani album on the rack. given that all his other live releases are extremly good, and this one contained so many of the same songs as on the others, I just didn't see the point in dragging out all the old favorites once again, tossing in some new material and pressing it to 2 CD's. of course I bought it anyway because I'm a completist.

This is by far the best live sampling of Joe's, period. the arrangments allowed for a bit more improvisation and his playing, while as technically impressive as it ever is, feels much looser. I think a lot of this has to do with the interplay between Dave La Rue and Jeff campitelli also. when Joe was touring with jeff and Stu Hamm, the material was tight, acrobatic, and obviously virtuosic (wait... that IS a word, right?)but Larue and Campitelli seem to move around a bit more within the traditional arrangments of songs like Flying in a Blue Dream and Cool #9. the overall tone of the album is a little darker and heavier than Joe's usual offerings and it really adds a lot to the dynamic nature of the material - meaning that the deeper, more throaty tone quality of the bass and guitar "breathe" a little more.

the interplay between La Rue and Joe is bloody impressive too. I've always been a huge Stu Hamm fan, but this album has me REALLY hoping that there's more of this paring to come. I've always been used to the tight interplay between Joe and his bassist, but this material harmonically goes all over the place and then ends up exactly where it sounds like it should be. at times it sounds like Joe and Dave are moving in two totally opposite directions, but at the end of a passage is a pairing of notes, or a phrase that ties their individual parts together and sounds just incredible.

the last little observation I'll make is that this, in some ways unlike other satriani live material, stands up to repeat listenings very well. other live satch stuff I listen to because I want to hear slightly different variations of pieces I already know and like. on this album, I tend to hear something new with subsiquent listenings, and that's really the sign of a good live recording. This is a wonderful album.

As always Satriani is awesome live. My complaints with this set are the same as everyone's, the track listing. Aside from the tracks which were on "Super Colossal", the other songs are on other live cd's. I would've liked to have heard "War", "Back To Shalla-Bal", any number of songs from "Is There Love In Space?"...some live stuff not previously available, basically. Again though, Satriani is always great live.
If you have no live cd's of Joe's or are a big fan of "Super Colossal", this is a great cd for you. I also noticed that the track listing on the cd is wrong. Tracks 1 & 3 are reversed. The opening track is "Redshift Riders" and track #3 is "Flying In A Blue Dream"...true fans notice these things.

When I first saw the set list, I thought: "Oh no. Do we really need more versions of these old songs?" Yes, there was new material from "Super Colossal" (not his best effort), but not very much. And there wasn't anything from the two albums before that, not even "Searching," one of Joes' best pieces in years.

However, one Amazon reviewer noted that some of the boilerplate had been given new life through improvisation. Moreover, Dave LaRue was the new bass player: a man with considerable improvisational talents and experience playing the difficult music of Dixie Dregs. I had seen the very first performance of Joe's tour in Denver, Colorado and was impressed with the unit. Thus, I bought it.

I was not disappointed. LaRue adds layers and textures and even surprises that Joe's previous bass player, Matt Bisonette, was not capable of. One weakness of "Super Colossal" was that Joe played all the bass. Thus it was routine and uninteresting, unlike Stu Hamm's previous work. But with LaRue on duty, the numbers from "Super Colossus" improve considerably. It seems that LaRue's presence gave Joe some inspiration or freedom to let the band stretch out on several numbers. For the first time ever in my listening to Joe, it seemed that on some pieces at some times the band was creating as they went along. I heard things from Jeff Campitelli I had never heard before. And it worked. The intro to "Cool #9" is positively jazzy, with LaRue stretching out and the crowd noticing. A jazz fiend like me can appreciate this.

Joe is in perfect form throughout--a true virtoso of his instrument and his genre--and doesn't much things up by singing. His playing is a bit more adventuresome than usual on some pieces. A few reviewers noted a few missed notes, but I have yet to hear them. Even so, a few missed notes are better than pure formula.

One complaint, however, is this: if you are going to have a rhythm guitar player, then let him play loud enough to be heard without straining. Galen Henson, like Joe's previous rhythm guitarist, is way too low in the mix. Joe has nothing to fear by turning him up. It could also add more creative spark to the music.

Sadly, Satch's rich repertoire remains obscure in live releases. The first time you heard "Flying in a Blue Dream", "Summer Song", "Cool # 9", or "Satch Boogie" live you may have been knocked off. But to hear these songs over and over again is not worth the 20 dollars spent to listen a handful of Super Colossal songs performed live. Although Dave LaRue's peculiar style gives this CD an agreeable taste (specially on "Circles"), and Super Colossal's "Made of Tears", "Crowd Chant", "Ten Words", etc., are played rather nicely, many of us Satch fans would rather hear Time Machine or Strange Beautiful Music tracks. And for the love of God, stop mixing Galen Henson's rhythm guitars out!

My only gripe of the live records in Satch's catalog is he always includes the "hits" so you tend to get the same batch of songs. That being said, this one is still a winner.

agitated because a couple songs are out of order borderlines on the ridiculously nit picky. I find it really doesn't affect my listening experience. yes I wish he had played songs from other releases also, mainly because I'm not jazzed about Super Colossal studio wise. However SC really comes alive in this performance which is what I was hoping for. I'll probably never need to listen to the studio release since I've got this.

As for flying, always, potato head, yes they are all on other live releases, but these latest versions are nothing short of spectacular, and just those by themselves make it worth the price tag. SC was definitely not my favorite satch release, but this live release so far is my favorite and it blows my friggin ears off!! thanks joe, keep it up..

- From my review of the matching DVD.

I've been a Satch fanantic for 20 years now[!!]. I have everything he's ever done and while I especially love his work in the late '80's with Stu Hamm and Jonathan Mover [what I call Joe's "Golden Age" - check out the live B-side of the "Dreaming #11" EP], I love everything Joe puts out. But I must admit that this new double-DVD set is really exceptional, primarily because IMHO we finally get to see and hear Joe stretch out musically.

While "Live In SF" was fantastic, at times I felt it was a bit too clean and polished, almost antisceptic-feeling, and that the song renditions were, for the most part, too-perfect perfomances of the studio tracks. Not a whole lot of musical improvisation overall. But this new LIVE! DVD really caught Joe and company extending themselves, especially on some of the older stuff.

I also feel the same as others did about having too many versions of Satch-standards like "Flying...", "Always...", and "Summer Song", but on this DVD, all the oldies have been stretched out Joe breathes new life on everything. Go and listen to "Circles", the extended ending improv on "Always...", the swinging, jazzy feel of "Cool#9", the exceptionally moody intro to "Flying..." - all the old stuff simply rocks and feels so incredibly fresh because Joe's pushed things around, changed things up and flexes those fingers.

As for the Super Colossal heavy set-list. Overall, I very much like the new studio CD [though for me too, Crystal Planet is still one of my favorites], but yes, I too would have preferred to have a better mix of tracks from throughout the Satch catalog. You can't please everyone! But again Joe's performance on the new stuff here just makes me laugh...he is just so damn good it is scary. Every tune from the studio CD is simply phenomenal on this live set, especially the ripping "One Robot's Dream", "Cool New Way" and "Redshift Riders" [a track I only like on the studio version, but just love here]. Oh and I do like the fact that he left the few guitar-ooopsies on "Redshift" on the final mix - it proves Joe to be human after all!

I've been lucky enough to see Joe play live 30+ times over the last couple of decades. I even got a chance to meet and talk with him and the boys [everything you hear and read about Joe is absolutely true - he is completely missing all of the "I'm a rockstar" and "Yes, I am a guitar-god" genes]. Every time I see him play live, I come away convinced I've just seen a guy doing something he absolutely loves. Joe truly is a master of the instrument.

Buy this DVD. Buy the CD. Watch and listen carefully. I really think you will hear stuff here from Joe that hasn't been captured live before.