Joe Satriani 20th Anniversary Surfing With The Alien Concert - Mike's Excellent New York Adventure

One can only imagine the delight I experienced when I received an invitation to attend this special event(many thanks for this to Melissa Dragich of Joe's publicity team!). This was one of only four concerts across the east, center, west of America terminating with a special in studio in San Francisco that Joe was playing to celebrate the anniversary of this groundbreaking release. An album I am sure we can all agree, almost single-handedly saved the art form known as instrumental rock guitar.

I immediately contacted another great guitar player from Long Island and close personal friend Stevee T. Since I needed to pay for my own flight, I was sincerely hoping he could and would offer accommodation in exchange for being my guest at this illustrious event. Of course, his answer was yes. He is one of the biggest Satch fans out there.

I was not able to obtain a reasonable flight from Toronto to New York and so had to make the trek to Buffalo, New York to catch a commuter flight. Stevee T. graciously met me at the airport, in his spiffy Honda 2000 convertible, and we repaired back to Long Island for the evening.(btw, that Honda has now been replaced by a Porsche!!!) The rest of the day was spent visiting famous haunts, record shops and music stores on Long Island. LI is of course, the breeding ground of so many famous instrumental guitar players. A mind-boggling list that includes Joseph, Steve's, both Vai and Stevens, Petrucci, and of course SteveeT. Stevee mentioned that Randy Jackson of Zebra fame also abides there.

Day of the concert, we head into town early for a meeting with Rob Balducci, guitar player extraordinaire, teacher and all around good guy. He is also a great and very early friend of the alloutguitar website. Stevee T. in fact, only works with the best teachers. His three teachers in the past three years have been: Greg Howe, Doug Doppler, and Rob Balducci. Quite an impressive list! He should play even better than he does with that instruction!!! We meet up with Rob at the famous Hawaiian Tropic bar, where we were regaled by the beautiful scantily clad bathing suit and suntan lotion models. Tough to ever leave that place, but eventually leave we must. Most of the time is spent discussing the early days of Relativity Records, pivotal along with Shrapnel, for preserving the art of virtuoso guitar playing with Rob, because of course Rob actually worked for Relativity right at the very beginning. He promises sometime in the future to write an essay about those seminal early days of rock guitar in New York City. Rob if you are listening out there please remember your promise! The world needs to hear that story.

We head up for some seafood before the show with other friends and Rob's sinister looking manager. When we return to the Gramercy Theatre an enormous line has spread right around the block. Much to my dismay, there is no separate line for will call and guest list pass pickup meaning we spend the next 45 minutes getting access to the venue. Good thing we showed up on time. All is not lost however, as Rob regales us with even more strange banter, including his personal hygiene regime, which includes shaving every hair on his body. He tells us all that this indeed IS the only way to go (and commando of course), don't knock it till you've tried it, and make sure your razor is safe.

The venue is small, and even before the concert begins the fans are essentially trembling in anticipation. The fever is electric. It is unspeakably hot down in the pit. There are few seated areas and those are quite far back in the theater. The floor is not sloped, where the main level seating used to be, so a good vantage point behind a short person will be at a premium. We settle in facing the right side of the stage where we expect Joe to be stationed as is usual for him. Guess who we run into? The great Canadian guitar player Dave Martone, who has just spent an hour downstairs with Joe! Dave tells us that he has written a few songs for Joe to solo over for Dave's next album. Dave himself partook in the Vancouver recording of the Crowd Chant on Joe's last album Super Colossal. Dave is obviously a huge Satch fan and being fully cognizant of the importance and magnitude of this event, is obviously just as excited as the rest of us. He invites us all to come and see him and a few of his Berklee buddies jamming out to classic rock tunes at Smith's a well-known New York City watering hole, very close to the David Letterman theater. Of course, we're going to go, Dave is a monster and a hell of a nice guy.

Joe hits the stage and shares a brief conversation about the genesis of Surfing and about its obvious importance to his career. From the opening strains of Surfing, Joe is totally on fire! Joe is at ease, happy, secure and comfortable with his obvious talent and accomplishment. As he looks out over the audience, he sees his mom, and several other family members sitting in the very first row of the seated section. Joe is not phased at all, he is obviously not a nervous man. He performs flawlessly. Without having to, he even apologizes for needing to sit down to perform the intricate guitar styling in the song Crushing Day, one of my fave's!. Joe's is very animated and evidently happy to be doing this concert, and his crowd banter shows that. Of course, he plays the whole album in sequence from start to finish. Every song is delivered absolutely perfectly, as is the norm with Joe. He plays a few additional songs, including two from his last album, Super Colossal to round out the evening. He then thanks us all and heads downstairs to party with family and friends. Guess what? We are invited and as a matter of fact, Martone has given us his guest pass as well. Meaning 3 1/2 of us [Alda, Ronnie's wife is so tiny, she will sneak in with him, using Martone's pass] will be able to meet and greet with Joe. Ronnie my Scottish friend is wearing a vintage 1980s, Satch T-shirt that he wore the very first time he saw Satch back in Scotland. He is hoping that Joe will in fact, remember this T-shirt.

It is pure bedlam downstairs with Joe, entertaining his guests in a small corridor outside his dressing room. The area is blocked off with a curtain and guests are schlepped in a few at a time to meet their hero. Well as you can imagine, since Joe has so many family and friends in the New York City area,it is quite some time before we are granted access to Joe. As a matter of fact, after meeting all of the close friends, Joe comes out to the main vestibule area to mingle with the rest of us. Of course it is hard to get a word in edgewise as Balducci manages to grab most of Joe's attention. Probably sharing shaving tips. Joe is gracious and says yes he does remember that T-shirt from  Scotland. He signs everything that is put in front of him, poses like a true professional for photographs and then excuses himself to continue the party with his very close family. Prior to his leaving I ask if he realized at the time he was recording his masterpiece the impact it would have on his career and on the music world in general. He replied: "Of course not, we knew we were creating something very good ,maybe even magical but in those early days you never knew if that greatness would spread beyong family and friends!! Thankfully the Greg Kihn band experience allowed me the proper time to record this one the way I wanted and also allowed me to escape the debt I had incurred recording Not of This earth."

At the end of the day, I could never add to what has already been written on this website about the importance of the album Surfing With The Alien. To have been part of a time when this album was initially released and impacted the world has been my great pleasure. And of course to see this concert ihas been an even greater pleasure. It is my firm suspicion that this concert will in fact be released as a DVD. There were camera positions galore in the Gramercy Theatre. If and when the show is released. You would do well to obtain a copy. We repaired up to Smith's bar and closed the joint with Dave Martone singing along to all the great classics they performed that night only pausing to pay FULL attention to Dave's sinewey solo technique. The man is a master, check him out live if you ever get the chance. Thanks Dave for a fitting end to a great night and a most excellent New York adventure!