Satchvai Band – Hammersmith Apollo – 14 June 2025
Satchvai Deliver Spellbinding Fretboard Fireworks in London
On a hot, sultry Saturday night, the cavalcade that is the Satchvai band rolled into London, Hammersmith Apollo for the second night of the European tour, and if it was hot outside, the temperature inside rocketed with this incendiary performance from the two guitar heavyweights. This was quite simply a once-in-a-lifetime masterclass from these two wizards of the fretboard.
Not only is this a supergroup in name, but in members. Not only do we have Joe Satriani and Steve Vai on guitars, but they are more than ably assisted by Kenny Aronoff on drums, Marco Mendoza on Bass and Pete Thorn on guitar.
There was always going to be something special about this show. The anticipation outside the venue was tangible, and the buzz inside increased as the clock ticked towards the time of dimming lights and the arrival of the band on stage.
Opening with two songs, I Wanna Play My Guitar and The Sea of Emotion Part 1, both newly written for this project and featuring Marco Mendoza on vocals, they proceeded to show that whether solo or together, they were both capable of creating stunning guitar-drenched pieces. The stage set was predominantly sparse, except for a screen showing visuals that accompanied the music. Tonight wasn’t a rock n’ roll show per se, yet they certainly intended to let the music do the talking.
The set itself enabled the band to stretch themselves, and with the music predominantly shared from Satriani and Vai’s back catalogue. It was very much a greatest hits visitation, albeit with the majority of Satriani’s tunes coming from the Surfing With The Alien album, and Vai’s from the Inviolate album.
With Vai up first, the riff-heavy Zeus In Chains from the Inviolate album was introduced before the Hendrixesque bluesy chops of Little Pretty blasted through. Both of these tunes enabled Vai to show the virtuosity that he is renowned for, and with the great man centre stage, more than tore up the stage with his guitar histrionics.
With Joe Satriani re-entering, they played a medley comprising Satriani’s Ice 9 and Vai’s The Crying Machine.
With both musicians’ music predominantly instrumental, it led to a show where the audience could sit back and let the guitar work mesmerise and wash over them, such was the atmosphere being created. The audience’s appreciation was clear by the silence and respect shown to the musicians during the pieces played before erupting into applause at the close of each piece.
With Satriani stepping forward to play two album title pieces, Flying In A Blue Dream and Surfing With The Alien, the intensity of the performances increased, and the musical technicality on show was out of this world, as were the visual backdrops during these pieces. Sahara offered Satriani a chance to slow down with a sultry slow blues.
Yet Vai was not to be outdone, and with the arrival of his three-neck Hydra guitar for Teeth Of The Hydra, he threw down a gauntlet to Satriani as the exquisiteness of the performance enveloped everyone. Yes, both musicians can shred and flash their way around a fretboard, but they can also hit the right emotions with their playing. It’s not all a shredfest, and when they slow down, both have the ability to ring sensuous melodies and different textures out of their instruments.
Of course, anything Vai can do, Satriani can match, and a bombastic Satch Boogie was the obvious piledriving and electrifying follow-up, complete with Hendrix-style teeth picking of the guitar.
As the show wore on so the more notable pieces were played and the audience were in raptures over Satriani’s If I Could Fly and Vai’s For the Love Of God.
With the set closer Always With Me, Always With You, it was a question of whether there would be an encore and what this would encompass.
The answer of course was ‘yes’, as they re-emerged for two cover versions with Mendoza back on vocals. It is fair to say that very few there that night would have expected Metallica’s Enter Sandman to be played, yet as the opening chords and riffs lit up the night the band immersed themselves in this rock classic, making it their own. With the show finishing with a riff-laden Born To Be Wild, this was a once-in-a-lifetime masterclass of pure virtuosity and incomparable musicianship. With the entire band showcasing what rich and clearly defined abilities they bring to the table, and the grins on the faces of all onstage highlighted how much they had clearly enjoyed the night. It wasn’t just the audience that went away happy; it was clear that the band recognised what a triumph the night had been as well.
WORDS: ADRIAN STONLEY PHOTOS: ROBERT SUTTON
Setlist
- I Wanna Play My Guitar
- The Sea of Emotion, Pt. 1
- Zeus in Chains (Steve Vai song) [Inviolate]
- Little Pretty (Steve Vai song) [Inviolate]
- Ice 9 / The Crying Machine [Surfing/Fire Garden]
- Flying in a Blue Dream (Joe Satriani song) [Flying in a Blue Dream]
- Surfing With the Alien (Joe Satriani song) [Surfing With the Alien]
- Sahara (Joe Satriani song) [The Elephants Of Mars]
- Tender Surrender (Steve Vai song) [Alien Love Secrets]
- Teeth of the Hydra (Steve Vai song) [Inviolate]
- Satch Boogie (Joe Satriani song) [Surfing With the Alien]
- If I Could Fly (Joe Satriani song) [Is There Love in Space?]
- For the Love of God (Steve Vai song) [Passion And Warfare]
- Always With Me, Always With You (Joe Satriani song) [Surfing With the Alien]
Encore:
- Enter Sandman (Metallica cover)
- Born to be Wild (Steppenwolf cover)
