On April 6, 2016, I had the unique opportunity to see Mr. Joe Satriani and the rest of his touring band, Marco Minnemann, Bryan Beller, and Mike Keneally play at the Keswick Theater in Glenside, Pennsylvania. Although the show sold out I was disappointed with the show on three different levels; A)the venue B) the length of the show and C) Marco Minnemann.(Please note, the views that are expressed in this review are solely my opinion and I am not claiming to be an expert on any level. These are things that I observed during the show). The Keswick theater was built in 1928 and according to the website was recognized to have the "most comfortable best acoustic room in Philadelphia." Unfortunately, Mr. Satriani, did not play any acoustic songs on a acoustic guitar whatsoever and rocked out all evening on his many eclectic electric guitars so I felt that the theater did not compliment his style of music or the way that he played. I thought that because of the size of the venue, some of the songs he played sounded muffled and not very clear. The way the production manager set up the stage was simple which great however I thought they could have had a drop-down screen so that we could see the musicians better and really see how they play. The stage was small and limited. The theater holds 1300 seats, so if Mr. Satriani was trying to create a more intimate feel between him and his fans it was hard to do. The seats were on top of one another so trying to make an emotional connection with the music wasn't going to happen for fear of blocking someone's view of the stage or being too obnoxious. Mr. Satriani would have been better off either playing at the Tower theater or at the Kimmel center. Joe Satriani is a world class musician and I thought playing at the Keswick theater was an insult to the thirty-plus years of skills and hard work into becoming a master. The show was supposed to start at 7:30pm but Mr. Satriani was kind enough to give an extra 20-minutes to his fans to find parking and get to their designated seats. So he played the first half of his set until 9pm and than took a 15-minute break. The show was resumed at 9:30 pm and he played until 10:30 pm which included the encore. Seeing Joe Satriani was rarity as he does not tour very often and its unclear to me how much more he desires to tour given the lifespan of his career at this point in time. The other part of it was that he was only playing one-night so I thought he could have played until at least 11pm. I am not expecting him to be Trey Anastasio and pull an all-nighter but he could have played another night. I would have made every effort to see him despite his choice of venue. The second half of the show started off with Marco Minnemann doing a drum solo which gave fans a brief "window shopping," of his brilliant skills as a drummer and in depth knowledge of time signature and drums in general. However, as talented (and beautiful) as Marco Minnemann is I found his playing to be "heavy,hard and strong" which are positive adjectives to describe his drumming however in this case I felt overpowered the rest of the band members and even Joe's playing at times. I watched other Joe Satriani live shows on DVD where John Cuniberti is the touring drummer and I have to say that was/is a better fit as far as complimenting Joe's playing and the rest of the members. There are times when Joe is playing that he sounds like a jazz player and so does the rest of the band. Dare I say, that John appears to play with more finesse, discipline and is a "lighter" player and has more versatility. In my opinion, Joe really put "himself out there on a limb." Just completely uninhibited. Watching Joe and John play together I saw their was more of an emotional connection which gave the songs a completely different feel. Finally, I wanted to mention or comment on the true and high-end karat diamond that was on the stage which was/is Mike Keneally. I have to admit that I was blown away (I came to see Joe Satriani) by the skills and talent this individual possesses. I saw a brief idea of what this man is capable of doing on the keyboards and guitar. I don't know where Joe found him, but his style of playing on the keyboards and guitar playing reminded me of the jam sessions of the sixties band Traffic (specifically the live album, "On the Road,"). Next time, I hope Mr. Joe Satriani plays in a different venue that is more accessible, plays in Philadelphia/suburbs more than one night and has fellow musician that enhance and embrace him and his music.

Thank you.............Sarah Munoz