Guitar God casts spell on hysterical Bangalore fans

Guitar God casts spell on hysterical Bangalore fans
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: Terming his performance in Bangalore as his best ever, Joe Satriani, the guitar virtuoso rocked the city for a good three hours on Tuesday evening.

An audience of at least 8,000 fans had gathered around the stage like pilgrims at God's altar, awaiting the musical blessings. The God did surface at half past seven and immediately encapsulated his skills in a jiffy.

Joe was brilliant and never disappointed his audience. He mixed his comical hops with his express paced finger movements on the fret board to create mythical eastern spells, proving that he was influenced by Chinese and Indian music of late.

The crowd was behind him in many songs, with `Satch Boogie' in particular. He had his bass player, Matt Bissonette, play the boogie riff to perfection. His other band mates were clearly on cue when it came to keeping up with the master chord craftsmen.

Gelen Henson threw in some reggae riffs in between a rock and roll number, where Joe suddenly decided that he was going to sing.

The fans were enthralled by the guitarist's ability to play a sound that was a mix of the sounds of guitar heroes like of Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Pete Townshend and Jeff Beck. His Japanese Ibanez JS1000 and 2000 guitars were the highlight of the evening. With their distortion pedals and gadgets, they proved quite handy to Joe as the guitar sounded like a spaceship flowing through the cosmos.

And when it all reached a crescendo, the spellbound amateur guitarists took many a lesson back home, of how practice can make one perfect. Much after the God disappeared, the halo reflected while the music reverberated in the soul of every music lover. The God had indeed descended on Palace Grounds.

The play list included a whole range of songs. It covered his entire catalogue from 1988 and came down to his latest offering the moody and eclectic `Is There Love in Space?'.

The selection included Time, Devil's Slide, The Crush Of Love, Satch Boogie, Borg Sex, Flying In A Blue Dream, Ice 9 Cool #9, Circles, Until We Say Goodbye, Ceremony, The Extremist, Summer Song, House Full Of Bullets and many more, all with the Guitar God's hallmark.

Satriani spread one great message to the smoke filled arena, he said, ``Let's remember the planet, because it is everything to us. Let's keep it clean.''

Importantly, Satriani has left a mark on Bangalore and promises to come back with more guitar attacks in the future.