BUC
Well-known member
Flew out to Austin to see Joe Satriani and the Steve Morse band at Austin City Limits Live.
Kind of dumbfounded that this isn't a true double billing, but more like Morse warming up for Satch. Especially after watching the two of them back to back.
Got to meet Steve for about 15 minutes before the show. He had to actually come out onto the loading dock to meet me as they had the show locked down tighter than a drum with no "aftershow". Finally got to meet Steve's wife, Janine, which was great.
The SMB tore through a 40 minute set of 8 songs. I don't have all the titles but partially it was, Name Droppin, On the Pipe, Baroque'n Dreams, StressFest, Rising Power, and Cruise Control. I'm missing one that's a blue grass country burner.
Steve played #1 all night except for the Guitar/Bass duet where he played what looks like the same blue acoustic that he's been frequently pictured with.
My daughter, who's 27 went with me and had never been to an instrumental show before. She wasn't sure what to expect but after Cruise Control she said, "I'm a believer!"
Dave LaRue is getting better every year. Honestly, he's just an amazing bass player. Hammering on chords, slapping, trading leads, whatever he needs to do to make a 3 piece sound like a small symphony.
Satriani is really touring with Mike Keneally's band so it's none of the dudes I've seen him with before. Keneally is pretty darn good axe player himself, and it was interesting for me to see him switch between keys and guitar many times a song as I'm a keyboardist/guitarist myself.
Marco Minneman stole the show though. What an amazing drummer. I'm hoping to see him w/the Aristocrats later this year.
In the end, I think they needed another 20 minutes of SMB and 20 less of Satch. He's great but by the end of his set I just thought he'd played too long and had long since run out of riffs. My daughter had changed from "a believer" to checking her watch. Not trying to badmouth Satch, as I'd love to have a 10th of his talent, just saying that for this show it was a little too much.
If you catch this tour to see SMB, be in your seats at starting time! Their set was great and covered a ton of musical ground and will leave you wanting a lot more.
Kind of dumbfounded that this isn't a true double billing, but more like Morse warming up for Satch. Especially after watching the two of them back to back.
Got to meet Steve for about 15 minutes before the show. He had to actually come out onto the loading dock to meet me as they had the show locked down tighter than a drum with no "aftershow". Finally got to meet Steve's wife, Janine, which was great.
The SMB tore through a 40 minute set of 8 songs. I don't have all the titles but partially it was, Name Droppin, On the Pipe, Baroque'n Dreams, StressFest, Rising Power, and Cruise Control. I'm missing one that's a blue grass country burner.
Steve played #1 all night except for the Guitar/Bass duet where he played what looks like the same blue acoustic that he's been frequently pictured with.
My daughter, who's 27 went with me and had never been to an instrumental show before. She wasn't sure what to expect but after Cruise Control she said, "I'm a believer!"
Dave LaRue is getting better every year. Honestly, he's just an amazing bass player. Hammering on chords, slapping, trading leads, whatever he needs to do to make a 3 piece sound like a small symphony.
Satriani is really touring with Mike Keneally's band so it's none of the dudes I've seen him with before. Keneally is pretty darn good axe player himself, and it was interesting for me to see him switch between keys and guitar many times a song as I'm a keyboardist/guitarist myself.
Marco Minneman stole the show though. What an amazing drummer. I'm hoping to see him w/the Aristocrats later this year.
In the end, I think they needed another 20 minutes of SMB and 20 less of Satch. He's great but by the end of his set I just thought he'd played too long and had long since run out of riffs. My daughter had changed from "a believer" to checking her watch. Not trying to badmouth Satch, as I'd love to have a 10th of his talent, just saying that for this show it was a little too much.
If you catch this tour to see SMB, be in your seats at starting time! Their set was great and covered a ton of musical ground and will leave you wanting a lot more.
- so I was also surprised this wasn't a double-headline tour when I saw it announced.
