User Reviews

A mixed bag. Sound for first 5 or so tracks very poor. The bass and rhythm guys might be good, I wouldn't know on the evidence! The concert gets more enjoyable after about track 6, when they take out the acoustic guitars for intro. to one track, that gets some kind of sense of dynamics about the music, instead of the fast and furious hell for leather approach up to then. Then there is a blues tinged track that allows Mike Kenneally to finally show that he is a serious musician too! The "send and return" interplay between Satch and Kenneally is a bit hackneyed (and is better done by Steve Morse and Jon Lord or Don Airey from Deep Purple). However, the interplay between Kenneally and Campitelli on keys and drums when they play off each other is superb, not to be missed. Satriani himself is a very tasty player, but doesn't engage with the audience much (at all?) and is a bit too technical and virtuoso, no need to run at 100 all the time Joe! The 3D distracts rather than enhances. Every so often you get a forest of smart phones in a long shot of the stage, which is more annoying than realistic. Scale is the issue, there is little point in trying to persuade an audience in the cinema that they are at a concert, the perspectives are wrong; it just don't work! I would rather see Joe Satriani with other guitar players, as in the G3 tours with Steve Vai and, in particular, Eric Johnson. In this kind of context he shines, as a player and as a bandmaster, because he understands contrast and gives everyone space. He didn't do enough of that on this gig.