Joe Satriani & Oli Brown @ De Oosterpoort – Groningen (NL) – 06.06.2013

Groningen was in the mood for some guitar-extravagance this night in the great De Oosterpoort by the appearance of one of the most brilliant guitarist nowadays Mister Joe Satriani. All the guitar-crackpots had already in advance gloomy eyes and were eagerly awaiting the show start of their fave.

But first it was blues-time by Oli Brown from Great Britain. Remember the days when the young gentleman started by the famous Blues Caravan live and being dressed like a business-dude in fine panties and waistcoat and having a nice panache?Mama loved it the early years, haha… In 2013 these days are fortunately gone, Oli has changed completely. By his afro-vein he could easily play a character role in the musical Hair. But most important he has self-developed and plays in 2013 a fantastic modern-blues. He started by ‘Manic Bloom’. The funky delta-groove including a spicy buckshot of hoodoo-axe-solos in praise of Jimi Hendrix was immediately highly acclaimed and many in the audience were shaking their hips, specially the girlies. His voice has extremely progressed and was very positively emotional by ‘Mister Wilson’. Wayne Proctor was to add some hot drum-licks. By the explosive, stompy ‘You Can Only Blame Yourself’ the end was already achieved at its highlight. He was to enthuse by his fantastic wild solos. The audience was in the mood for more by their end-plaudit but no encores. Uuh, way too short gig, but fantastic.

Oli Brown definitely a young vocalist and six-string-artist to continue the legacy of the blues.

After some reconstruction on stage it was by frenetic elation time for Joe Satriani to enter the stage. He started by his bluesy intro to ‘Cool #9’ and it was transferring into a fascinating jam. Joe was not the slide guitar-man, but the next song ‘Devils Slide’ was so damn hot and a demonstration of his extraordinary fervid skills. It was Marco Minnemann by his exceptional drum-play to intensify the heat. He is really one of the greatest foxes on the cylinders and ever so versatile. By his seasoning play-style he had well deserved to enjoy a sip of beer during each pause. Next the alien, by his bald head and coolish sunglasses invited his freaks to come along ‘Flying in a Blue Dream’. What a spacy journey into the orbital world of the planets. Bryan Beller on bass contributed some extra cool groove-dynamics to it. ‘Unstoppable Momentum’ the title song of the new CD was the first summit-song in the repertoire. Unbelievable and ear- and eye catching the solos by maestro Satriani. There was this special nightly estival-ardency in De Oosterpoort by ‘A Door Into Summer’. Joe proved by his hooky guitar-solos ever so full of harmonies and being empathetic what a great magician he was live. Ok he needed his pedals for some effects, but his play was ever so earthbound and not exaggerated. It was boogie-time Satriani-style by ‘Satch Boogie’. The maniacs were wildly bouncing to the rhythm. He let his guitar do the talking. Joe is not a man of many words on stage, but as intermediate to ‘Shine On American Dreamer’ he was speaking some words full of his love and sympathy to his fans and introducing his band-mates. His longtime-friend Mike Kineally was adding some brilliant streaming keyboard-melodies to it. By some finest hard-rock by ‘Surfing With The Alien’ JS was terminating his regular set. The head-shakers loved to bang their crowns by it. Joe was agitating as playboy as the calls of the wild animals made him to enter the holy grail again by ‘Crowd Chant’. He loved to play with them as his pets and was the big director by his solos to separate De Oosterpoort into two halves and to make them to compete against each others by clapping and singing louder than hell. By ‘Rubina’ he was terminating the show by a diamond the calmer, spiritual way to make his fans cool down and send them home happily the meditative way, full of peace, Passion and love. Joe Satriani the earthly, hyper-sympathic alien was climbing his green space-shuttle after signing some autographs to head to the next tour-stop.