Last November, it was announced that Joe Satriani and Steve Vai would be working on new music together for the first time – and they’d be hitting the road for a co-headline tour.
Commencing mere weeks after the pair concluded their G3 duties with Eric Johnson, the Satch/Vai Tour officially kicked off last Friday (March 22) with a show at Hard Rock Live in Orlando, Florida.
The first Satch/Vai tour seemingly set the template for future shows, and loosely followed the same schedule established by the G3 Reunion format. Namely, each individual electric guitar virtuoso was granted their own independent set, before the pair shared the stage for the finale.
Thanks to some diligent gig-goers – and Satriani himself – footage from the evening has now made its way online.
For Vai’s show-opening set, Teeth of the Hydra, Tender Surrender, Little Pretty and For the Love of God all featured. Details of Satch’s opening-night setlist are hard to come by, but his set on the 23rd comprised the usual suspects: Surfing with the Alien, Ice 9, Flying in a Blue Dream and more – it’s likely his Orlando set followed the same outline.
However, it was the encore that perhaps warranted the most attention, with Vai and Satch locking fretboards of their PIA and JS1CR30 Ibanez signature guitars for a three-song finale that comprised a cover of a Metallica track, a rendition of a Kinks classic, and the live debut of the pair’s first-ever joint single.
The latter song, titled The Sea of Emotion, Pt.1, set the tone of the encore, and gave attendees an exclusive preview. No doubt dialed up for the live setting, the near-10 minute track saw Satch and Vai take turns noodling over a pensive progression, before taking a complete left-turn and dropping into a hair-raising, whammy bar-tinged riff.
There are some awe-inspiring harmonies and melodies in there, with that run at the 5:00 mark onwards in the video below serving as a particular highlight. It's clearly appeased fans, with one commenter on YouTube noting: “My face has melted.”
Set for an official release on March 29, the track is not only significant for the fact it’s the guitarists’ first-ever collaborative single, but also because it’s a nod to the pair’s past.
Vai and Satch’s shared six-string history is well-documented. They both attended the same high school in Long Island, for instance, and in the ‘70s Satriani famously tutored Vai on the guitar.
Satch addressed this tutor/student history while reintroducing Vai to the stage on the opening night: “I thought, ‘Oh, wow. This kid is going to be phenomenal when he grows up. I just have to civilize him somehow.’ I didn't.”
And, as the two guitar heroes once explained in an interview with Guitar World from 1990, the Sea of Emotion marks an important aspect of that shared experience: it was the name of a place they both went to in New York. In fact, the pair had even earmarked “The Sea of Emotions” as a potential song title more than 30 years ago.
“I've always thought about doing a record with Joe,” Vai said at the time. “Right now, our careers just won’t allow it because we're so busy. But one of these days, when everything dies down, we'll sit down and do it.”
“When we've become totally unpopular,” Satriani added. “We'll probably get together. [Drops into old man voice] Oh, Steve, remember the old lick…” To that, Vai suggested they could call it “The Sea of Emotion”.
A cover of the Kinks’ You Really Got Me then followed, before the two brought the show to a close with a wah-drenched take on Enter Sandman. Again, it was another significant inclusion to the setlist, given the fact Satch had also once taught guitar to Kirk Hammett.
“Thank you Orlando!” Satriani wrote on Instagram after the show. “The Satch/Vai Tour has officially taken flight.”
The Satch/Vai Tour is scheduled to continue tonight (March 25) at the Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, Florida.
Head over to Satriani’s website for a full list of dates.
