Joe Satriani continues to set the gold standard for instrumental guitar rock with his epic Earth Tour stop in Durham, NC.
Joe Satriani brought his Earth Tour to the Carolina Theatre in Durham, NC. In a career-spanning set of nearly 30 songs, Joe Satriani and his incredibly talented band rocked the one-thousand-seat venue to its foundation. Multiple standing ovations and countless metal horns thrown into the air made this evening with Joe Satriani a perfect celebration of his nearly 40-year career including 15 Grammy nominations, founding of the highly successful G3 tour, and selling over 10 million albums making him one of the best selling instrumental rock guitarists of all time.
The Elephants of Mars is Joe Satriani’s latest and eighteenth studio album. He said in an interview that his intent with this album was to, “Set a new standard for instrumental guitar albums to be measured against.” Based on this evening’s performance, Joe Satriani outperformed his goal by also setting a new standard for live instrumental guitar performances. This evening proved without question that he is one of only a small handful of musicians who can keep an audience excited and totally engaged for over two hours without a single sung lyric. Song composition is part of making this possible but having the technical skill to bring complex songs to life on stage is a gift.
Serving both as the lead guitarist and the lyrical storyteller, songs such as “Sahara” and “Blue Foot Groovy” from The Elephants of Mars drew the audience in and told a story just as well as the best-written lyrics. While these songs are new and lesser-known to the audience, they fit in perfectly and were unmistakably Joe Satriani compositions at his best. Even when Joe Satriani got carried away multiple times and couldn’t stop soloing to bring a song to its end, the songs made this a true rock show and not a showcase for Joe Satriani to show off how fast he can play.
Joe Satriani’s stage presence is calm like a bomb; nearly motionless, fingers ablaze traversing the fretboard, ticking the moments away until he explodes with raised fists and impassioned screams. Joe’s colorful and often blindingly reflective guitars were the fifth band member and clearly the lust objects of every fan in the audience. Joe Satriani’s chrome guitar shone like the brightest star in the sky during “Flying in a Blue Dream.” For “Sahara” and “The Elephants of Mars,” a beautiful guitar applied with The Elephants of Mars album cover provided a compass to keep the audience together and moving forward during these lesser known songs.
The touring band is an exceptional collection of musicians who knew when to lay back and give Joe a canvas to create upon, when to take center stage, and even when to give Joe a competitive jab in the ribs and fight for the limelight. Kenny Aronoff is a well-known session drummer and provided structure. His heavy-handed drumming style that somehow doesn’t seem to ever drop below 120 beats per minute threatens everyone on stage to stay awake and keep up because he won’t stop for anyone.
Rai Thistlethwayte contributed keyboard and guitar on stage. Rai is the ying to Joe Satriani’s yang, sometimes dueling his jazz keys with Joe’s rock guitar while at other times providing rhythm guitar that fills in the spaces around Joe Satriani’s guitar solos. On bass was Bryan Beller who connected everything together. Jumping between sludgy, funky, driving, and tender Bryan’s bass created the frame and set the emotional tone for each song.
Joe Satriani and his band delivered a masterclass in Durham, NC on just how satisfyingly complex and wildly entertaining instrumental rock can be. Maybe next time Joe Satriani visits he’ll get stuck in a never-ending closing solo so the audience can throw metal horns in the air and listen forever.
