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Get your guitar fix with Joe Satriani
The master of six strings plays at the Orpheum on Nov. 5.
When the name Joe Satriani pops up in conversation, the first thing that comes to mind is his amazing guitar playing. Though not his first instrument – he started playing drums at age 8, then moved on to piano – it became the one he wanted to master when he was 14, shortly after learning that his hero Jimi Hendrix had died.
Satriani was a rocker who found himself taking lessons from jazz pianist Lennie Tristano, and soaking up different ways to play music. He later formed a power pop band called The Squares. A few years on, he released an EP made up solely of sounds he created on his electric guitar (on his own Rubina Records label). Then he got involved with the Relativity label, and had his first hit – and it was a monster hit: the album “Surfing with the Alien.”
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Satriani became a specialist in the art of instrumental music, releasing a string of popular albums, and touring the world. In ensuing years, he also played in other bands – he was the lead guitarist on Mick Jagger’s first solo tour, a temporary replacement for Richie Blackmore in Deep Purple for a Far East swing, and the guitarist in Chickenfoot – yet he never stopped writing and recording his own albums.
Classic tunes – hard rock as well as ballads – from earlier releases will be played alongside songs from his newest, this year’s “The Elephants of Mars,” on his current “Earth Tour.” The band he’s fronting includes Kenny Aronoff (drums), Bryan Beller (bass), and Rai Thistlethwayte (keyboards).
Over the past couple of years, the second thing that’s come to many minds when Satriani’s name pops up is his talent as a painter. Working with acrylics and watercolor – often in the same piece – he creates portraits – sometimes of people, sometimes of guitars, other times with both together. On top of that, he paints guitars, using guitar bodies that have been sprayed black as his canvas, and going at them with colored marker pens to produce unique drawings.
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There’s no telling which guitars he’ll be playing in concert, but it’s always cool when he straps on his gleaming chrome Ibanez. It looks as good as he makes it sound.
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