OK Joe Satriani redeemed himself! G3 content

[cvogue]

Just got home from G3... as some of you may remember I saw Satriani solo about a year and a half ago and it was terrible, he may have played well but the sound was so bad (he was so loud you couldn't hear drums) you couldn't tell what song he was playing half the time.... probably the house sound person. Ugh.

Fast forward to tonight. Steve Vai was first, very much a showman, maybe too much but great playing, I don't follow his new music, only song I recognized was For the Love of God which he ended with.

Eric Johnson was not loud enough I thought, and his main tone was really muddy. When you could make out what he was playing it was great... I know he has a really bassy lead tone as his trademark sound (he hit some effect on the left side of his pedalboard to get that effect) but it kinda didn't work well when competing with the bass/drums. His clean tone was good, very articulate but the main leads... sigh.

Then Satch came out, I was apprehensive after his last gig I saw but the first 5 seconds told me I had nothing to worry about. Started with my favorite song of his which helped (Raspberry Jam). Tone was great, volume was loud but it worked in the mix. He sounded so good it almost sounded fake, so much like the album but it was live. He did a lot of his older stuff but a newer song called Sahara was really good. And this time I could hear it! He used a bunch of his usual signature guitars and had 3 of his signature Marshall JVM 410 half stacks.

A touching moment for us... my wife didn't really know Satch's music but was enjoying it. Her brother (a musician) passed away from cancer several years ago and they played Always With You at his funeral. Satch started that song and she looked at me shocked and started to get emotional... then he ended his set with Summer Song which was her brother's fave Satch song. Pretty cool and unique moment.

Anyway, overall it was a great show, cvogue says check out G3 if you can when the show comes your way!

 

[Jbird]

I've only seen him one time. 2002 opening for Dream Theater just days after Chromey was stolen, so he was using brand new Ibanez guitars he had never played before.

His sound that day was very good, leads me to believe the bad sound day was all on the guy behind the mixing board.

 

[cvogue]

I've only seen him one time. 2002 opening for Dream Theater just days after Chromey was stolen, so he was using brand new Ibanez guitars he had never played before.

His sound that day was very good, leads me to believe the bad sound day was all on the guy behind the mixing board.

Yeah others have said that too, even some of the larger acts use the house sound people. Last night's venue (Magnolia in El Cajon, San Diego suburb) was a newer one but gets a lot of pretty big acts so they had their act together.

 

[Psychotronic]

It could be the venue, too. Some just have dead spots where the acoustics aren't good. I don't bother anymore, but I used to walk around the house during soundcheck to see what my guitar rig sounded like in the room. Often, there were dead spots.

 

[Pine Apple Slim]

I can recall two shows where extremely bad sound totally ruined it for me.

One was Blackmore's Rainbow w/Dio, opening for Clapton back in the 80s at a hockey/basketball type arena. I was a Deep Purple fan in my youth so I was looking forward to it. Loud and incoherent. Somehow piercing and muddy at the same time. You couldn't make out any vocals at all or even what notes the guitar was playing. Just rumble and random icepick frequencies stabbing you in the ears. Clapton's sound was excellent even though his show was yawn inducing IMO. Go figure.

Second was Drive By Truckers at a 1000-1500 venue in Atlanta a few yrs ago. Also extremely loud and poorly mixed, a total mess and headache inducing. Loud can be great, but it can also be pain inducing as this was. All piercing organ and Hood's guitar. Cooley and the bass player were lost in the mud, and the vocals were totally buried. Heck you could barely make out the drums. Mrs Pine and I tried every area of the venue to no avail, just awful. So disappointing because I was a big fan and still am. Mrs Pine saw them again not long ago at a small theater and said the sound was great. So I was disappointed a 2nd time because I declined to give them another chance.

 

[cvogue]

I can recall two shows where extremely bad sound totally ruined it for me.

One was Blackmore's Rainbow w/Dio, opening for Clapton back in the 80s at a hockey/basketball type arena. I was a Deep Purple fan in my youth so I was looking forward to it. Loud and incoherent. Somehow piercing and muddy at the same time. You couldn't make out any vocals at all or even what notes the guitar was playing. Just rumble and random icepick frequencies stabbing you in the ears. Clapton's sound was excellent even though his show was yawn inducing IMO. Go figure.

Second was Drive By Truckers at a 1000-1500 venue in Atlanta a few yrs ago. Also extremely loud and poorly mixed, a total mess and headache inducing. Loud can be great, but it can also be pain inducing as this was. All piercing organ and Hood's guitar. Cooley and the bass player were lost in the mud, and the vocals were totally buried. Heck you could barely make out the drums. Mrs Pine and I tried every area of the venue to no avail, just awful. So disappointing because I was a big fan and still am. Mrs Pine saw them again not long ago at a small theater and said the sound was great. So I was disappointed a 2nd time because I declined to give them another chance.

Saw Aerosmith twice in the 80's, first time it was terrible. Like how you described Blackmore's Rainbow, a combination of mud and needles in the ears. Saw them again the next year thinking the first show was a fluke.

It wasn't.