Review by Jordan West
Photos by Ron Lyon
Superhero guitarists Joe Satriani and Steve Vai and their “Surfing with the Hydra” tour made waves in Long Beach at the downtown Terrace Theater recently and added new dimensions to their large catalog of music to please their loyal fan base. A very loud and passionate crowd greeted the SatchVai Band as they are billing themselves, like the welcoming of a beloved relative during the holidays. Plenty of shouts around the room of “We love you” were heard from my vantage point throughout the nearly two-hour set, which featured the two long-time friends sharing the stage for most of the evening.
After an introductory showing of a video, directed by Satriani’s son ZZ, for their latest single together entitled “Dancing” in which Satriani and Vai are sitting at a boardroom table, being lectured on ideas from an “artist manager” played by Brendon Small (Dethklok, Metalocalypse) who essentially tells the duo that they need dancers to spice up their act. Satriani and Vai, along with their outstanding band — guitarist Pete Thorn, bassist Marco Mendoza, and drummer Kenny Aronoff — then hit the stage and broke into their latest single, a version of Paolo Conte’s “Dancing” as the video kept playing in the background. It featured a variety of street and hip-hop style dancers and fit in well with the songs quasi-Latin style.
Immediately, the crowd reacted, and the energy in the room was infectious, as the band continued with their 2025 song “I Wanna Play My Guitar” that featured Mendoza on vocals, which were originally recorded by Glenn Hughes. Mendoza did a fine job, and his bass playing was rock solid all evening. Continuing with their latest release, Satriani and Vai traded licks on the fabulous “The Sea Of Emotion Pt 1” as the hilarious video of the two dressed in retro wigs and clothes playing in a retro house’s kitchen played on the video screen behind the band.
Vai, all six feet plus of him, stood center stage as Satriani and Thorn flanked him at first, before Satriani joined Vai center stage and the two virtuosos ripped power chord after power chord to the delight of the crowd. Vai then brought out a gorgeous semi hollow body “purple-swirl” colored Ibanez guitar and dipped into the 2022 “G3 Live” material with the performance of “Zeus in Chains” as well as the very progressive “Little Pretty” which showed off so many of his guitar solo skills. The awestruck audience gasped at what they were witnessing.
Joe Satriani then re-appeared onstage and introduced the band members before cranking up “Ice Machine,” a play on the combination of Satriani’s “Ice 9” that melded with Vai’s “The Crying Machine.” It was incredible to see these two fabulous guitarists, friends from high school, adding harmony guitar to their individual compositions. It was like re-writing a masterpiece, and it continued almost the entire set. The smiles of joy from both guitarists were infectious, and spread to the audience, who were loving every bit of output from the huge stage.
Satriani’s driving “Flying In A Blue Dream” as well as the shred of “Surfing With The Alien” were not only spotlighting the guitars, but the rhythm section of bassist Mendoza and the rock-solid drumming of Aronoff especially, kept the tempos on cue. Satriani’s fingers literally blazed across the fingerboard of his Red Ibanez guitar, with the skill of a pro surfer cutting across a wave. The crowd rose to their feet in approval.
Vai rejoined the band onstage to duet on Satriani’s dreamy “Sahara” then took over to perform his bluesy, “Tender Surrender,” a track from his 1995 Alien Love Secrets release that spotlighted plenty of his many incredible techniques, from finger picking to a host of others in his arsenal of tools, as well as ending the number with a liberal use of his tremolo bar.
“Teeth of the Hydra” had Vai unveiling his multi-necked elaborate “Hydra” guitar, which was anchored to a stand onstage. Vai’s hands effortlessly flew between the necks with the skill of a surgeon, and again, the crowd roared at songs end. Joe Satriani then returned and stormed the stage with his excellent “Satch Boogie” and even finished the song by playing his guitar with his teeth. From “Teeth of the Hydra” to “Teeth of the Satch.” All the more reason to love these guys!
Satriani’s “If I Could Fly” is always such a joy to hear performed. It has a wonderful melody and has been used for many action videos that I have seen online. You may remember that this song was also completely ripped off by the band Coldplay a number of years ago and they had a hit with it. Steve Vai joined in on it tonight and again, brought the song to another level. To see these two play off each other as they improvise on each other’s material is really what this night was about for me and many others in the audience.
Vai then dipped into a track from his 1990 Passion And Warfare LP with “For The Love Of God.” The songs soaring guitar runs were absolutely hypnotizing. His fingers effortlessly caressed the neck of his guitar that unleashed incredibly smooth sounds that had the “air guitarists” in the crowd who were trying to keep up, completely exhausted by songs end.
Joe Satriani and Steve Vai finished up their set with a duet on Satch’s lovely ballad “Always With You, Always With Me.” To hear Vai add harmony to this beautiful song was definitely “worth the price of admission” as they say, and the part when they were both using the “hammer-on” technique was, again, enough to make anyone stop what they were doing and bear witness to the talent of these two gentlemen.
They thanked the crowd and songs end and the band slowly left the stage to yet another huge applause, and a standing ovation. They soon returned and encored with Satriani’s “Crowd Chant” from his 2006 Super Colossal collection of songs and the crowd reacted by clapping along, stomping their feet and mimicking Joe’s guitar sounds, just like on the record. Satriani stood there with his mouth agape, clearly pleased with what he had created.
Kenny Aronoff’s familiar intro led the band in a rave-up cover of Led Zeppelin’s classic “Rock And Roll” with Marco Mendoza again taking the vocal. They then ended the evening with a rousing version of Steppenwolf’s biker anthem “Born to Be Wild” that had everyone in attendance singing the chorus along with vocalist Mendoza, as well as Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Kenny Aronoff, and Pete Thorn. It was indeed a fun way to end an incredible night of music featuring the cream of the crop of masterful musicians onstage.
Opening act Animals As Leaders played a very interesting nine-song set that featured guitarists Tosin Abasi and Javier Reyes trading multiple notes on eight-string guitars. So many in fact, that combined with drummer Matt Garstka being in a constant state of syncopation and keeping an almost impossible pace, it was almost making me dizzy.
The song “Ectogenesis” seemed to me like all three band members were laying down a separate solo that magically met up in places, before exploding into yet another direction. “Physical Education” had much more of a groove, and, although the drum patterns had a number of stops and starts, it had many in the crowd bouncing their heads in unison, obviously getting prepared for the guitar pyrotechnics that would be happening soon with SatchVai Band.
As you can imagine, it was quite an evening of supreme musicianship on display from some of the masters of their respective instruments. To add to that, again, seeing Steve Vai and Joe Satriani playing in the same band, for the entire show was something that this fan will not forget. Their love of what they do, shone through the many notes played onstage, and the joy they expressed translated into a very happy and pleased audience. Thank you gentlemen for an outstanding evening.
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