SatchVai Band – Long Beach Terrace Theater – April 7, 2026
To those outside California, Long Beach, the LBC, is perhaps best known because of Snoop Dogg and Sublime lyrics, or the Grand Prix of Long Beach IndyCar race that takes over its streets each year. It’s a vibrant coastal community south of Los Angeles, and Tuesday night it was taken over by extreme guitar virtuosity. Two of the world’s greatest players, Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, combined forces on stage to showcase impossible-to-comprehend musicianship.
I first became aware of both Joe and Steve when I was in college in the 1980’s, and was looking for music that was outside the box. I don’t know how I stumbled onto either of them – certainly nobody I hung out with had heard of them – I suppose I thought the album covers warranted further investigation, and I took home both Steve Vai’s Flexible and Joe Satriani’s Dreaming #11 EP within a month of each other. I’m not a musician, but what was immediately obvious was that the sounds coming out of my speakers were otherworldly and unlike anything anyone else was doing.
Before taking his solo work to the next level and following his own lead, Steve Vai was known for his work with Frank Zappa, David Lee Roth on Eat ‘Em and Smile and Skyscraper, and Whitesnake on the Slip of the Tongue record. Joe Satriani came up teaching guitar, and taught and mentored such visionary players as Vai, Metallica’s Kirk Hammett, and Testament’s Alex Skolnick before his solo career took off.
A short aside for comic relief – I had a horrible neighbor who lived below me shortly after I bought Steve’s Flexible CD. They were loud at all hours of the day and night, and would constantly bang on their ceiling (my floor) for no reason. One day, I’d had enough. I took my speakers and faced them down on the ground. I put Steve’s song “Chronic Insomnia” on repeat, turned up the volume as loud as it could go without blowing the speakers, and walked out the front door for a whole day of class. “Chronic Insomnia” is eight tracks of guitar played at different speeds, and then flipped, so the whole glorious two minutes and five seconds of stereophonic chaos is played backwards… When I returned to the deafening sounds and bedlam emanating from my apartment many hours later, I laughed and thought about how awful it must have been to be anywhere near the epicenter of that never-ending spectacle of sound. Needless to say, I never had another issue with my downstairs neighbor, and I can honestly say that Steve Vai effortlessly helped me settle an intolerable noise dispute…with noise.
Tuesday’s Surfing with the Hydra Tour stopover was at the Long Beach Terrace Theater. The beautiful venue was built to showcase touring Broadway plays, the Long Beach Orchestra, and live music events. Slipknot wouldn’t do well in this venue, but dueling guitar pyrotechnics were the perfect match. The 3000-seat room actually has that – seats – and the fans made use of them all night. I haven’t been to a rock show in a long time where people sat throughout the performance, but I think with this kind of technical proficiency and next-level axemanship (I think I made that word up), people didn’t want to be distracted, but instead sit and concentrate solely on the music.
The night started with three new songs from Joe and Steve’s partnership – “Dancing”, “I Wanna Play My Guitar”, and “The Sea of Emotion, Pt. 1”. It was exciting to see the two titans of their instrument performing side by side and not only trading licks back and forth, but also synching up in between. While these songs are new and written by both men, they seemed completely at home next to Joe and Steve’s solo material. From that point on, they traded off, with Steve performing a couple of his songs, then leaving the stage and letting Joe take over for a few, before teaming up again to perform together.
The backing band was incredible, featuring legendary drummer Kenny Aronoff, who’s played with literally everyone (most recently Sammy Hagar on his Best of Both Worlds Tour) in every conceivable genre of music. Joining in on bass was Marco Mendoza, who also stepped up to sing Glenn Hughes’ part on “I Wanna Play My Guitar”, and a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll” and Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild” during the encore – not easy shoes to fill. Lastly was Pete Thorn, who provided the third guitar on stage. He’s played with tons of people, including Chris Cornell’s solo work, and he filled in seamlessly, getting to stretch out on his own during his solo on “Rock and Roll”.
My favorite part of the night was when Steve Vai’s amazing Hydra guitar was lifted to the darkened stage about halfway through, and unveiled as the lights came up. The Hydra is a custom guitar named for the multi-headed mythological creature. With three necks – a twelve-string, a seven-string, and a four-string bass, as well as 13 harp strings towards the back, this guitar looks like nothing else, all while sporting a steampunk aesthetic based on the film “Mad Max: Fury Road”. The guitar is too heavy to wear while playing, and comes out mounted to a stand to support it, while Steve stands over the beast and attacks it during the song “Teeth of the Hydra”. It was quite a sight to behold and listen to in a live setting.
This was truly an amazing night of guitar-driven wizardry. I suspect there were many guitarists in the audience on the edge of their seats watching Joe and Steve’s hands assault their fretboards, but for me, the beauty was watching five amazing musicians working in instinctive but improvisational harmony to put on an incredible show, where each participant pushed the others to their maximum and beyond.
SatchVai Band are:
- Joe Satriani – Guitar
- Steve Vai – Guitar
- Kenny Aronoff – Drums
- Marco Mendoza – Bass
- Pete Thorn – Guitar
Setlist:
- Dancing
- I Wanna Play My Guitar
- The Sea of Emotion, Pt. 1
- Zeus in Chains
- Little Pretty
- Ice 9 / The Crying Machine
- Flying in a Blue Dream
- Surfing With the Alien
- Sahara
- Tender Surrender
- Teeth of the Hydra
- Satch Boogie
- If I Could Fly
- For the Love of God
- Always With Me, Always With You
Encore:
- Crowd Chant
- Rock and Roll (Led Zeppelin cover)
- Born to Be Wild (Steppenwolf cover)
Animals as Leaders
Animals as Leaders are a big deal in their own right, regardless of their opening slot for Joe Satriani and Steve Vai. I was familiar with Tosin Abasi through his work a few years ago with Generation Axe (Zakk Wylde, Yngwie Malmsteen, Nuno Bettencourt, and Steve Vai), and knew of the band, but had never seen them live. They don’t make their living with theatrics – you won’t find any of the trio jumping off Marshall stacks, or soloing in the crowd, but you will hear song after song of amazingly technical dualling eight-string guitar prog-metal brilliance. All of that was on full display for the Long Beach crowd, as were the ever-shifting time signatures and guitar virtuosity. They were the right band to kick off a night of guitar-driven perfection, and those in attendance watching and listening with mouths agape felt the same way.
- Tosin Abasi – Guitar
- Javier Reyes – Guitar
- Matt Garstka – Drums
