As he approaches his 60th birthday this summer, instrumental rock guitar hero Joe Satriani appears to be trying not to become a nostalgia act via his top-selling breakthrough release, Surfing With the Alien, from 1987.
Yet he’s dipping his toe in that water on his current From Surfing to Shockwave tour by playing tunes from that time-tested gem through his latest CD, last year’s Shockwave Supernova. And none of the material disappointed a near-capacity crowd at the Parker Playhouse in Fort Lauderdale on March 16.
Part of the reason was that the native New Yorker assembled a backing band that was more than up to the challenge. The glue was 54-year-old Mike Keneally, the Long Island-born multi-instrumentalist who dazzled while doubling on guitar and keyboards. And the rhythm section of underrated bassist Bryan Beller (from Keneally’s self-titled band) and German drummer Marco Minneman capably shifted between subtlety and bombast.
A more appropriate tour title would’ve been From Shockwave to Surfing, since Satriani opened with his latest release’s title track. Keneally played both guitar and keyboards on the piece, sometimes simultaneously as few others can, and Minneman’s footwork on his double-bass drum pedals brought the track to a thunderous conclusion before the vintage material started.
The dreamy title track to the 1989 album Flying in a Blue Dream provided contrast and excited the audience, leading to perhaps the apex of the entire show. “Ice 9,” the Surfing With the Alien track with an inverted funk/rock rhythm, actually eclipsed the original through the interplay between Satriani and Keneally, every bit Satch’s equal on guitar. After one of Beller’s inimitable solos, the two faced off and traded notes like fighter pilots before the bandleader addressed the crowd.
“I can’t believe it’s been 30 years,” he said, inciting a responsive roar. “Thank you all so much for coming out to help us celebrate it.”
The subsequent metallic title track to Satriani’s 1998 release Crystal Planet nonetheless brought the energy level down a notch after the preceding twin-guitar hysteria. “Butterfly and Zebra,” a ballad from his latest effort, did so more purposefully, as he and Keneally (on keyboards) created mood music during the intro before Beller embellished the melody and Minneman provided sparse accompaniment. The hourlong set closed with “Summer Song,” a raucous rocker from the 1992 album The Extremist that the audience clearly recognized, and which did its duty in leaving everyone wanting more.
After 15 minutes, Minneman strode out and launched into a surprisingly effective unaccompanied drum solo. In contrast to his preceding, and occasionally distracting, overuse of his double pedals, the drummer provided light and shade amid his hummingbird patterns. And he successfully borrowed from perhaps the greatest drum soloist ever, Buddy Rich, playing solo sections exclusively on his cymbals, and then drumstick-on-drumstick.
Unfortunately, Satriani chose to pay only passing homage to another of his high-watermark releases. His self-titled 1995 recording was like no other from his career; an unprocessed, live-sounding mix of funk, rock and fusion with rhythm guitarist Andy Fairweather Low, bassist Nathan East, and drummer Manu Katche. Yet after a bizarre solo keyboard showcase for Keneally — who blended acidic elements of Herbie Hancock and John Medeski — the versatile musician’s guitar heroics with Satriani on that release’s lone “Luminous Flesh Giants” allowed the moody rocker to live up to its ominous title.
A surprise classic rock medley allowed Beller to take another extended solo, showcasing his ample funk chops, before he traded with Satriani and Keneally, sometimes simultaneously, amid quotes from Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” and Led Zeppelin’s “Heartbreaker.” “If There is No Heaven,” another gem from Shockwave Supernova, was suitably surf music-influenced, since it was surrounded by the tracks that much of the audience had waited to hear.
The remaining Surfing With the Alien material, though, was a mixed bag. Keneally started the ballad “Always With You, Always With Me” with a percussive shaker a la the original, but Satriani had a bit of difficulty navigating its challenging melodic passages. Ditto “Satch Boogie,” the preposterous up-tempo blues number that closed the second hourlong set, yet on which he couldn’t equal the solos from the original version.
But the remaining throng roared its approval and demanded an encore. Satriani indulged with “Big Bad Moon,” a more traditional blues number from Flying in a Blue Dream that showcased his slide guitar skills, harmonica soloing, and middling vocals that displayed why he’s the world’s most commercially successful instrumental guitarist ever for a reason. The title track to Surfing With the Alien was saved for the very end, and the crowd was given a royal treatment through the twin guitarists’ histrionics.
Satriani started his renowned G3 Tour guitar showcase 20 years ago, and will reprise it again this summer by headlining the G4 Experience, a series of shows in August in Glen Cove, N.Y. Like the original, it will also showcase the mind-boggling Texas blues/fusion artist Eric Johnson, fellow New Yorker Steve Vai, and Keneally (who replaced Vai in the late Frank Zappa’s band for his final, late 1980s tours, and contributed guitar, vocals, keyboards and percussion to Vai’s band in the mid-1990s). Relative newcomer Alex Skolnick will round out the lineup in the extended experience that may eventually prove to be Satriani’s post-Surfing legacy.