Joe Satriani and Steve Vai Shred Through Austin: Exclusive Photos

Joe
Satriani and

Steve
Vai‘s current
Satch
/
Vai
Tour
is
technically
a
pairing
of teacher
and
student
—
but
during
their Friday
performance
at
Austin’s
ACL
Live,
both
guitarists
displayed
such
a
jaw-dropping
mastery
of
their
instrument
that
the
distinction
felt
irrelevant.

You
can
see
UCR’s
exclusive
photos
from
the
performance
below.

Vai
noted
during
his
opening
performance
that
he
had
been
waiting
for
this
tour
for
52
years.
The
63-year-old virtuoso
began
taking
guitar
lessons
from
Satriani when
he
was
barely
a
teenager,
and
his
own
genius
quickly emerged
—
so
quickly,
in
fact,
that
Satriani
later
joked
during
the
duo’s
show-closing
jam
that
he
taught
Vai
all
wrong
as
an
act
of
self-preservation.

READ
MORE: Joe
Satriani
and
Steve
Vai
Have ‘Crazy
Ideas’
for
Upcoming
Album:
Interview

Not
that Satriani had
anything
to
worry
about.
For
one,
he
and
Vai
occupy totally different
lanes
on
the
shred-guitar
highway.
Vai’s
music
is
more
esoteric
and
progressive,
and
he
performed
with
an
alien-like
fluidity
and
grace befitting
of
an
artist
with
an
EP
named Alien
Love
Secrets.
Satriani,
meanwhile, hews closer
to
meat-and-potatoes
hard
rock,
favoring
a
more
organic, old-school
aesthetic.
(In
that
regard,
he’s
found
an
excellent
musical
sparring
partner
in
touring
drummer Kenny
Aronoff.)
But he
can
still
deliver
lightning-fast
legato
runs
and
skyscraping
whammy-bar
squeals
with
the
best
of ’em. Satriani was
the
picture
of
cool
onstage
in
Austin, his
searing
fretwork
and
consummate
showmanship
making
this
writer
even
more
excited
for
his

upcoming
tour
with

Sammy
Hagar.

Both
guitar
heroes
closed
out
the
night
by
performing
their
new
collaborative
single, “The
Sea
of
Emotion,
Pt.
1,”
and
trading
solos
on
extended
jams
of “You
Really
Got
Me”
and “Enter
Sandman.”
(Both
covers
had
unique
significance
for
Satriani,
as
he incorporated
part
of

Eddie
Van
Halen‘s
solo
on
the
former
and
paid
tribute
to
another
former
student,

Kirk
Hammett,
on
the
latter.)
Three
hours
of
guitar
histrionics
isn’t
for
the
faint
of
heart,
but
for
the
shred-heads
in
attendance,
it
was
a
thrill
to
bask
in
the
skill
of
two
masters
at
work.