Audio CD review:
Joe Satriani - Live in San Francisco

Joe Satriani - Live in San Francisco

Band: Joe Satriani Title: Live in San Francisco Rating: Release Date: 19 June, 2001 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Intro 2: Time 3: Devil's Side 4: Crush Of Love 5: Satch Boogie 6: Announcement 7: Borg Sex 8: Flying In A Blue Dream 9: Ice 10: Cool 11: Circles 12: Until We Say Goodbye 13: Ceremony 14: Extremist 15: Summer Song 16: Intro 17: House Full Of Bullets 18: One Big Rush 19: Rasberry Jam 20: Crystal Planet 21: Love Thing 22: Bass Solo 23: Mystical Potato Head 24: Always 25: Big Bad Moon 26: Begin Of Encore Section 27: Friends 28: Surfing With The Aliens 29: Rubina

Editoral Review The San Francisco-based virtuoso has earned his place in the rock guitar pantheon through hard work--even if he often seems to have mistakenly thought he was getting paid by the note. There's a scene in the film adaptation of Amadeus where Austrian emperor/neophyte music critic Joseph II criticizes a new Mozart opera by simply blurting, "Too many notes!" Which brings us to Joe Satriani. This collection (which tellingly grew from a modestly scaled TV project into one of rock's most problematic conceits--the double-live album) offers a sweeping overview of Satriani and his oeuvre, but that's a decided good-news, bad-news proposition. Fans and guitar clinicians will no doubt be awed by his technique; others may ponder why once in a while Joe can't express himself in 3 notes instead of his usual 349. Even the familiar swagger of "Satch Boogie" gets mired in a blizzard of 128th (or whatever) notes. But Satriani is to instrumental guitar rock what Evel Knievel is to off-road cycling, the Undertaker to thumb wrestling, and Howard Stern to civil discourse. Pick through the swirling flurries and mounting drifts of arpeggios and scales and there's enticing evidence of some real soul behind his shades. But too often Satriani simply blows past them as he plays to the back rows. Nobody's going to mistake it for Mozart--except maybe Emperor Joseph II. --Jerry McCulley .. You can see a complete list of all Joe Satriani discography, or go back to the Joe Satriani tabs