Regular
readers of this blog may know that RTM has walked with sticks all its life.
This has never really bothered us too much, and we came to terms at an early
age with the fact we were never going to score a goal in the cup final for
Stoke City, or hit a cover drive at Edgbaston for Warwickshire’s first team.
However, there is one thing that has always eaten away at us throughout the
years and it is nothing to do with our disability: it is the simple fact that
we absolutely cannot play the guitar however hard we try.
RTM
mentions this because tonight, apparently for the first time ever (according to
the man himself who says so onstage) Joe Satriani is in Wolverhampton for the
first time. He is here to play a show in support of his new album “Unstoppable
Momentum.” In common with all of Satch’s material, it is brilliant, not quite
as unbelievably good as his previous outing “Black Swans And Wormhole Wizards”
but brilliant all the same.
Satriani clearly
agrees, as during the course of his two hours with us he plays 10 songs from
it. The set begins with a short drum solo from Marco Minnemann, playing while
the other members of the band – bass man Brian Beller and longtime Satriani
sidekick Mike Keneally – wander out, followed by arguably the greatest metal
guitarist ever, who stays cool behind his shades throughout. He has his orange
guitar, he waves and roars into “Cool #9”
This sets the
tone for the next 120 flawless minutes, with the “…Momentum” tracks taking on a
fine life of their own, given the chance to breathe in a live setting, with the
funky “Weight of the World” sounding particularly fabulous.
For this
show Satriani has put together a fine light show, which sees a video wall
behind the band augmenting the tracks. “Flying In A Blue Dream” has with it a
stunning ocean scene for example and “Shine On American Dreamer” transports us
to the Red Rock Canyon and you begin to lose yourself in these songs.
Musically,
these tracks share an obvious kinship with RTM’s favourites Dream Theater
(Satriani has appeared with their guitar man John Petrucci at the G3 event) and
it is tempting on occasion to picture that band playing these songs – and make
no mistake these are songs and not just pieces of music. Indeed, this is what
sets Satch apart from other musicians of his ilk. He doesn’t overplay, he is
not flashy and he constructs tracks that don’t need lyrics better than anyone
else in the world.
The evening
reaches a quite stunning high point during “Surfing With The Alien” – the big
screen showing the incredible sophistication in the playing, before there is an
encore of the big dumb fun of “Crowd Chant,” during which RTM spots a chap air
guitaring al the way down the steps, being stopped by security, before air
guitaring all the way back them. It’s that kind of evening,
It is also
an evening where, if RTM could play the guitar we would sell it. We don’t need
to play it because we will never be as good as the man onstage tonight. It’s a privilege
to be in the presence of genius, but that is exactly what Joe Satriani is.
No comments:
Post a Comment