My wife is going to suspect me every time I suggest a concert. The last one we went to was Stick Night in NYC, and that was all instrumental. Last night we went to see Joe Satriani with Marco Minnemann on drums, Mike Kenneally on gtr/keys, and someone I don't know on bass (but so reminded me of Derek Smalls that it stuck in my head all night). All instrumental. If I keep pushing it she won't trust me!
Opening the night was the incomparable Steve Morse. With Dave LaRue on bass (monster!) and Van Romaine on drums (meh), Morse ripped it up like he was still in his 20's. He had a decent audio mix, too, which was a nice plus. This was the 2nd time I've seen him. The first was when the Steve Morse Band was touring in support of their "Stand Up" album, opening for Rush on the Power Windows tour in '86 (the first night of the tour). Last night he was no less impressive. Ungodly good tone, with a physically heavy-handed approach to playing; he beat the crap out of his guitar, and it was GLORIOUS. LaRue did some cool two-handed tapping stuff on one bluegrass-oriented tune

The big differences between Morse and Satriani: Morse seemed more about the music. Of course Satriani has some good music and he and his band were absolutely top-notch (except for the bassist, who was painfully unimaginative when soloing) Satch seemed perfectly happy to pose and play "guitar god". And his mix sucked. I understand that this was a guitar player's wank-fest, but god DAMN, Satch's guitar was so loud that everything else became nothing but backwash. (My ears are still ringing - well beyond my chronic tinnitus.)
I HATE guitar players' mixes. They never sound like a BAND, they sound like guitar players' audition tapes: guitar is all, the rest is just substrate.
Not that we didn't enjoy ourselves, but it would have been nice to be able to hear things clearly other than guitar. And of course, Marco didn't disappoint. Thank goodness he had a solo feature, too.

I do really like Steve Morse, but I sure don't care for Satriani.

A thing I perpetuated with my friends was a thing called Joe Satriani syndrome. Where as someone may be really talented but are flat out boooooring!

Marco sure is having a busy year on the road and in the studio!

Satch's bass player was Bryan Bellar, the 3rd member of the Aristocrats (along with Marco
Minneman and Guthrie Govan).

If you are a MM fan, a must see/hear. http://the-aristocrats-band.com

We just heard Steven Wilson touring with MM and GG (and Nick Beggs) a few months ago (great show/album).

So you have these 2 different bands that each contain 2/3 of the Aristocrats.

Longtime Steve Morse fan (30 years), I would go to hear him more than Satch.

Dave Larue is one of my favorite bass players too.

Thank you for posting a report, it was fun to read about your experience of the concert. I remember when reading in Guitar Player Magazine that this guy Satriani was to put out a record with INSTRUMENTAL guitar based music... must have been around 1980? Anyway, this made a huge impression on me because I thought a lot of music, that essentially was good, sucked due to badly fitted vocals. I listened and wasn't very touched by Satriani's music. But I must say that just recently I heard a live clip on YouTube that was great! Eh well, Satriani played very good, but when checking out a few more tracks I found that I would have liked most of the tunes better if arranged differently; shorter and more "story-telling".

Otherwise my favourites in guitar based instrumental rock and jazz are Jeff Beck, John Abercrombie, Terje Rypdal and Eyvind Aarset. I've recently listened to albums by Anoushka Shankar and starting to like the way she plays the Sitar (don't know how "guitar based" that is... )

I'm also a big fan of a style of guitar-like music that I haven't heard anyone play yet, so I still look forward to the future in this regard. It's like if you take Arfrican Kora music, play it sparse, minimal and loud with an instrumentation that optimises frequencies in the mix. Oh, and compositions should be evolving rather than repeating parts - based on melodies that not necessarily need to be played.

Ya Satch aint my cup o' tea........Morse on the other hand.......Cruise Missile baby! Yeah!!

cheers,
kev

He played "On the Pipe" last night.

I love Satriani's music but never saw him live. What a shame about that mix, and so many guitar mixes. It's like a lot of the Van Halen and 1980's work where you can barely ever hear the bass player.

On the Pipe, what a cool tune.......
memories.

Hows the stick playing coming along Luc? Looking forward to hearing and seeing some action from you.....

cheers,
kev

Is your wife a singer Luc? Just wondering why hearing a vocalist at a concert is so important to her?

She's a "musician who's let it all fall by the wayside" from an artistic set of parents. She likes all types of music (except Country, like me) but because of her rock upbringing she's used to seeing front men/front ladies. She'd never been to any concerts without a singer...until she met me.
Kevin: Slowly. I'm getting there; I'm about half to 2/3 through my first tune, and scratching the surface on a second, but my life dictates that my time spent on the instrument is limited. I also recently sprained my left middle finger (not as bad as it sounds, I promise!) and it refuses to heal. However, I can still use my right hand and so I'm trying to connect with Greg for lessons once again. There IS my upcoming improv session with my best friend Wednesday to look forward to...