@krishna kumar.....Am pretty sure its to get feedback and the extended "satch" sustain........the walking towards tha amps or the speakers.........

@webmaster sorry just had this itch to answer taht...hopefully am right :)

THE LEGEND "JOE SATRIANI'S" GIG REVEIW FROM BANGALORE(INDIA).

The first and the foremost review by Krishna Kumar (rockar olla_70), the man who was 3rd in the frist row with my strong, bright orange t.shirt.

Firstly thanx a lot for Joe & his band for a wonderful, fantablous, spellbinding, elavating gig which they offered for the Bangalore fans.Joe and the band kicked off the concert with a big bang sending ripples across the sea of fans & that was just a start and can be called as appetiser while the evening was comletely immersed with lots and lot of wonderful tracks and improvisation in-between the songs.

The gig started @ 7.30 pm and went on till 10pm in the night, a tight chilled out single set of 2hrs 30minutes.People in Bangalore never regretted that they missed the era of Jimi Hendrix they saw a man more than Jimi Hendrix on 17th May. The stage was quite simple and the way Joe usually wants it to be .. with minimum gadgets & a very soft lighting which shines on him. Joe completely in black tight-fit t.shirt with his wonderful & blazing guitars rocked the evening away. The band was chilled out and they had whole lotta fun on the stage, special thanx to Jeff who really was wonderful with his weired expressions that he usually does during gigs. Joe was jumping all around the stage and the Matt was so calm and composed and Galen as usualy with is lovely smile. They did more than what they usually do, Joe did a lot of improvisation in-between the tracks. Among the the set list were tracks Hands in the Air, The Crush Of love, Pycho Monkey, Borg Sex,Moroccan Sunset, Starry Night, Surfing With The Aliens, Flying In A Blue Dream etc.

Joe was too hyper active on the stage and was totally shell shocked by the response he got from the Bangalore fans. I feel that he never expected such a gala turnover, the fans went on chanting his name JOE JOE JOE JOE and he was was so much content from the response ... we could make out from his face. The whole band was amazed by the response and Joe especially was so thrilled ...he was lost for words many a times. For a change he did lots and lots of talking on the stage and everyone loved it.

Let me tell you all how the day went on, I was the first to be in the Venue by around 10.30am and the stage was geting setup and I it was very very hot and sunny day. The Tech crew Mike Manning, John Cuniberti & Eric Caudieuxhad arrived at 11am and started off with the stage set-up, by around 3pm Jeff Capitelli came in for the sound check he was awesome .. and really cool ground guy and called his name out to take a picture of his and he pose cheerfully throwing is one hand aside and a camera in another hand. He did come down and asked him for his autograph and he told and he does not have a pen and I handed him a permanent marker and got his autograph on a 100 Rs currency & he did make a comment on the picture of Gandhi stated that "Gandhi, he was great man" & later introduced him to friend of mine who was a aspiring drummer and he stated "Good .. we need more drummers" and I took a picture with him and then he went up for the stage for the sound check.

Joe came in around 3.30pm for the sound check and we did take some pic of his on the stage and he requested all the techs and Jeff to do the help him do the guitar sound check as there was some problem with some sound. The sound check went on till 4.30pm and then it was a long wait till 7.30pm and then the real gig started.

I noticed many things which Joe does on stage and something which I could not understand was that many a time during the course of track he goes back towards his JSX amp and he plays there for sometime, I observed this in each song he goes back near the amps ...why is it ...does he check for anything there. Secondly he often move to his extreme right towards the speakers and plays there ... any specific reason ... I also observed that there was something kept on the top of one of his JSX amp it look like a idol ... of a man with a guitar or something which I could not zoom into anyone has a clue please post them on t2j so I can read. For the first time I saw Joe was have a fancy thing hanging down his guitar stip...that was looking good & classy indeed. Joe promised that he will surely come back to India and I know that he will do so and we are ready for the next guitar assult.

All and all it was wonderful, fantablouse, breath-taking experience to see Joe and his band ...in flesh and blood & their wonderful & warm nature towards all his fans.

In the end there are many people I would like to thank for the the great evening they gave us ... men who were in the scene and when who were behind the scene. I would like to thank

THE BAND: Joe Satrani, Jeff Capitelli, Matt Bissonette & Galen Henson.

THE TECHS: Mike Manning, John Cuniberti, & Mick Brigden (Bill Graham Management) & all the other techs whose name I really dont know but your faces & work is not forgotten.

EVENT MANAGERS: Opium Events, Cyrus(I luv you man for all your help), Rajesh, Zeius(hope I spelled it right), Paul & rest of the team who helped us stay completely from start till the end.

SATRIANI.COM : Webmaster Jon(for all his help), friends from the forum .. Big Bunny, Cheese101, Bahduh & the rest who really encouraged me not to let go of the a oppurtunity to see Joe up and close.

LAST BUT NOT THE LEAST: All the Satriani fans who came there to see the God himself and their love for his music ... you are the people who can make him come again to Bangalore and cheers and lot of luv to every single one of you.

JOE WE LOVE YOU AND WE WERE & WE ARE BLESSED TO BE YOUR FANS. All I know the star was give all the respect he deserved in Bangalore the rock city of India & it was our privilage to give the legend the respect which is deserved. All he could see was his loving fans ...real Satch lovers from BANGALORE unlike Mumbai (sorry, but that was a fact)

KRISHNA KUMAR (rockarolla_70)

It was indeed one of those red letter days for me y'day and am sure the same for all guitar lovers. We reach the venue earlier at 3pm to see God during his jam session. Amazing to see Satch live, his fingers as ripples moving on the fretboard.

He was playing bits and pieces of his songs and was checking sound peak outputs, I went up back stage to meet him at 3.15. I had taken my electric guitar and a perm marker for him to sign. My pals also joined me backstage as we were waiting for him to come down. I saw 7 custom made Ibanez gigs stacked up on the stage. It took almost 1 hr, and my pals were getting hungry and went off to a pub nearby. I told them I would move only after I meet Joe Satch. So me and some more fans wait patiently for an hour or so....Hmm the moment of truth arrives.....God then decides to descend from the stage at 4.45, wearing his designer cap and black round neck T shirt with his black goggles. Fans in the meantime crowd up the back stage and the security personnel start pushing us all out. Huh then, Joe steps down from the stage, and I then walk up to Joe, least bothered about the other guys, take my guitar and show it to him and say "satriani" and hold the marker for him. He takes it and signs on the pick guard on the black body and maple wood finish of my Behringer guitar with a permanent marker. As he signs he says, "Is this your guitar?", I tell him "yes Joe, I also play", he smiles and says "oh", I then take his hand and then say "God I have been waiting to listen to you live", he smiles and says "Thanks". I put my priceless possesion - my guitar back into the sponge Cover and carry it back to the pub. This is my baby with a blessing with God's Autograph on it. This may be worth Lakhs if auctioned as my frenz put it, but is a jewel for any guitarist, am sure!

Elated I catch up with some music and start for the show at 6.30. We then belt music in the car as we leave my gig in my frenz car and run for the show. 7.20 the stage comes to life and the crowd roars.. The show lasts for 3 hrs, God plays all his favourite nos from the old to the new. During the show Satriani chucks his plectrums, and after the show my friend who lost his mobile very graciously hands over a 0.7mm thickness pick, black pic, in my wallet at the moment, poor guy, he went searcing for his mobile.

WOWWWWWWW, Donno how excited I was, I cried and cheered from the front rows for Joe Satriani.. Cheers rock on........ Satriani we are waiting for you in India.

Hey people. I could go on and on about how great the show was, how good the psychedelic lights on the background was and how amazing joe was but im sure other people have written about it. This peice is gonna concentrate more on the things that should not have been. The first hint of trouble started when enough tickets werent given out and the limited no. were SOLD OUT 3 days before the concert. Then they got in more tickets in the last moment. As Percy has mentioned in his review, a few of us (about 10-15 hardcore satch fans) were harmlessly watching joe soundcheck when we were chucked out of the venue. Then the whole ticket issue happened and there were lots of angry words exchanged between the fans and organizers.

But these were just signs for worse things to follow. I was lucky enough to stand right in front of the stage after waiting in the scorching sun for 4 hours. There was a gap of about 10 feet between the stage and the barricade. In that gap, all the organizers (opium events) and co-sponsors (global inc.) were standing. They were a bunch of people who were not even satch fans and were acting rudely talking to each other loudly, taking snaps when joe sat was playing and it was really rude. There were a bunch of amateur photographers who were running from one end of the stage to another, following satriani. It drove the real fans who had come to see their GOD, real mad. Also, the barricades were made of wood which was really hurting the people who were standing against it. The MAJOR PROBLEM however, was the fact that joe's centre monitor got switched off atleast 4 times in the middle of a song and he had to signal to pete (i think thats his name, the funny guy on the mike during the sound check!) to check it.

Also the PA through which the sound was amplified was very bad compared to the shows organised by DNA. If not for the 10,000 strong sold-out Bangalore crowd's enthusiasm, the show might have been really bad. Its time for the sponsorors to do some serious soul searching. My appeal to whoever reads this is, PLEASE GET DNA NETWORKS TO ORGANIZE SHOWS OF THIS MAGNITUDE. THEY ARE REALLY PROFESSIONAL AND HAVE MANAGED ROGER WATERS, MARK KNOPFLER, ELTON JHON, ROLLING STONES ETC. Satriani is nothing short of a legend in these parts. Opium events clearly are nowhere in the scene.

Hats off to Joe. He was amazing. Jeff had amazing feel on the drums. Galen on rythm was superb. Matt was his usual quiet. All the problems were forgotten and on a starry night, we journeyed through a great bunch of satch songs including summer song, going down, strange, cool 9 etc. Thanks Joe and the band

In one word--awesome. I'd seen Joe Satriani play in the US before and he never did anything like what he did in Bangalore. Joe said during the show, You guys are crazy. And we were. Read on, you'll understand why!

I reached Palace Grounds at around 2.15 pm in the afternoon. The gates weren't supposed to open till another three hours. I walked half a kilometere to find that there were no gates. The sound check was going on and Jeff Campatelli was on stage checking his drum kit, and taking a LOT of pictures. Jeff came down to the ground and every fan who was out there got to meet him. He was really down to earth and signed autographs, posed for pictures, did everything a fan could ask for. Jeff, you rock!

We then waited in the only shaded place in the ground, by the sound booth. I met a couple of more fans, one of whom (Krishna Kumar, who posted a review) had waited there from 10.30 am, another who came in from Chennai but was there before me. And I thought I was a crazy fan going there three hours early.

When Joe came on stage with his floppy hat, we all went a little crazy, shouting and he waved to us. He went to the left-side of the stage, picked up a guitar and started warming up. Even his warm up exercises also have his fingers moving like a locomotive, so fluid. It was amazing to see him standing there, playing his guitar with minimal effort.

Joe plugged in and then the sound check began. We heard him play one song before the event organisers then decided that they wanted to show us who was boss, so we were escorted out. I don't think Joe cared that we were there but the event organisers (Opium Events) had to show their power. They'd hear it from us later, when we booed them.

So, we waited, just outside the "gates" (there weren't any) and saw Joe do his sound check; we could hear him clearly and see him but the stage was about a 100 metres away. Anyway, the sun was beating down and it was hot and there was no water available. The organisers' local help decided that they needed gates, so while we were standing, they put up temporary "gates". Every fan out there was commenting about how DNA Networks would have done a much more professional job. Thinking about it now though, I'm happy that Opium was a little unprofessional. We got to meet Jeff, got to see Joe. Maybe we like unprofessional huh?

Then again, maybe not. We were supposed to be let in at 5.15 p.m., but that was delayed for about half an hour. Before that, we had to fight with the event management guys (Global Inc) who told us that they wanted our tickets. Each ticket has two parts, the part that the organisers keep and the part that they give the fans. Now, Opium and their partners (cronies) had given whole booklets of tickets to companies, so they didn't have the counterfoils to produce (for tax purposes), so they wanted our entire tickets. Of course, this got the fans mad. I've been to a number of concerts, I've never given away my ticket. Any fan knows that this is a souvenir that you keep. We argued, we shouted, we finally got the guy to agree to tear only 20% of the ticket. My ticket now says, E Satriani. I'm still mad about that.

I'd met three other Satriani fans who were at the Knopfler concert, so all of us were together, at the front row. Man, we were gonna be right in front of Joe when he came along. We were in the hot sun, no water, and we had to drink Pepsi (not exactly the best substitute) to beat the thirst. Add to that the fact that we had to listen to a heavy metal band open for Joe, it was sheer torture. I've not yet heard an Indian metal band that doesn't sound like Metallica and these guys didn't disappoint me. I must admit that we weren't too well-behaved at this point because we were mad at Opium Events and the band had connections with Opium.

When I think about now though, the "pain" was all worth it, but Opium could've made it better for us fans. There was a guy from Opium, Shaiz, who gave us some water, and a sip or two of Red Bull, juice; he was a life-saver. Note to organisers of rock concerts -- Provide WATER!

Anyway Joe Satriani made an entrance at about 7.15 pm or so and man did he rock. As soon as Joe came in, the crowd went nuts. When he started playing, we all chanted the tune of the song. It was crazy. The crowd was going, Oh, oh, oh-oh,.... Who needs lyrics!

The energy of the crowd was amazing and it was matched by Joe. He was jumping, he moved around the stage, and he looked liked he was having a blast. I've not seen Joe moving around so much (he didn't when I saw him in Columbus, Ohio) and playing to the crowd, and I think Bangalore's got to get some credit for that.

Every fan that I spoke to was there because they loved his music and I think almost all of them played the guitar. There was this girl near me who split my ear-drum shrieking every time Joe played a hot riff, she played the guitar too. There's a reason bands come to Bangalore--the crowds are knowledgeable, the fans *know* their music, and the energy we give off is amazing.

For me, the fact that I could see Joe up close, see his fingers move (effortlessly), hear the blindingly fast riffs, see him do all sorts of things with a guitar, it was well worth the price and some more. You can't put a price on things like rock concerts, especially to see a musician whose music you love play live!

I loved all the stuff Joe played (for almost three hours!) but I was really thrilled when he (also) played Always with me, always with you, and Going Down. I'm not going to mention all the songs, I'm sure the other reviewers have already done a lot of that. I've already written a long story but maybe this will give you a flavour of the concert.

I want to end this review by thanking Joe Satriani and his band. It was a dream come true to see him live in India and I'm glad that he made it. I think he had a wonderful time and he promised us that he'd come back (there were chants of G3 during and after the show!). I have a feeling, based on what I saw, that he will come back. I, for one, will be there when he comes next.

It was a concert that I will never forget in my life. Like many others, I don’t belong to that breed of regular concert-goers. And I think my past decisions were proved right yesterday as I saw the best live concert in my life. And I am privileged to say the man on stage was none other than guitar god, Joe Satriani.

It was electric, dazzling, amazing, and pulsating stuff for nearly three hours at the Palace Grounds. Screaming fans around me were saying whether Satch was a human or not. Because such was the skill and technique he displayed that for the thousands, who had been over-fed with chords and scales of Eric Clapton, Mark Knofler and Death Metal guitarists, the sounds emanating from Joe’s `machine’ was simply mind-blowing, surprising, impossible and eclectic.

Satch took us to heights we never expected to reach, dragged us through paths we had never seen and brought us back to where he had started. An amazing array of improvisations, deft pickings, and bluesy-rock stuff mixed with super-fast runs…. It was like a voyage through bright empty Space propelled by an unknown energy prodding, tingling and keeping us all happy and longing for more. A non-stop demonstration of how guitar can be played and played to create the maximum effect. It was God playing on stage.

I was lucky to see Joe playing almost all of my favourite songs like ‘Flying In A Blue Dream,’ (the way he started it was superb), "Satch Boogie,’ ‘Surfing With The Alien,’ Summer Song, ‘Hands In The Air,’ `Devil’s Slide,’ Ice Cool # 9,’ `Until We Say Goodbye,’ `The Extremist’ and `The Crush Of Love.’ No Big Bad Moon, it was so sad.

The show started around 7.30 p.m.after a brief disturbance caused by opening act Brahma. The organisers could have avoided this, because the local band showed that they have miles to go before they reach international standards. The screaming crowd numbered around six to eight thousand and after the show ended at 10 p.m. fans were unwilling to leave the ground as in groups they discussed what they had seen. Joe promised he would be back with more and with that in my mind I left the Palace Grounds unable to believe that I had seen Joe Satriani live.

Great show. i came with my friend at 2:15 and saw jeff doin his soundcheck. both of us got his autograph, and later took his picture with each other, and even talked to him for some time. sweet guy. my friend got an 'is there love in space?' pick too.

comin to the show, the band sounded very tight, i wonder how they pull off those endings witht so much perfection and coordination. Joe's guitar sounded just like the one in Live in San Francisco, rather than G3 live in denver, whose sound i didnt like. the lighting was excellent, specially during Starry night. it's amazing to see Joe Play for 2 and a half hours witht a single break. funny he didnt use his 'Chrome Boy' a lot. anyways, here's the setlist.

up in the sky, house full of bullets, cool #9, satch boogie, lords of karma always with me..., time, up in flames,, hordes of locusts, summer song, starry night, moroccan sunset, ice 9, strange, searching, hands in the air, psycho monkey, going down, is there love in space?, war, flying in a..., surfing...,

all in all. a great show, where i got to see joe from the front row with a Rs 1000 ticket (ya i tricked those guys to come in the rs 2000 area). hopes he tours with the G3 here.

PS: it was a statue of Nataraj on the JSX amp.