Joe Satriani: Satchurated, Live in Montreal 3D Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

Joe Satriani: Satchurated, Live in Montreal 3D Blu-ray Movie Review

Flying Solo

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater April 29, 2012

Let's start with some objective, indisputable facts: Joe Satriani is a fretboard wizard, a guitar god known for the speed and technical prowess of his finger-flying solos. Back before he made a name for himself, he taught Steve Vai and Metallica's Kirk Hammett how to shred. He's played lead for Mick Jagger and Deep Purple. He started the semi-annual G3 tour, where he's joined on stage by a revolving cast of guitar legends, from Dream Theater's John Petrucci to King Crimson's Robert Fripp. He's a founding member of the supergroup Chickenfoot, featuring Sammy Hagar, Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony, and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith. Of course, he's also released thirteen albums of his own material, netting fifteen Grammy nominations and selling over ten million records worldwide. He has his own signature-series Ibanez guitar. His compositions are regularly featured in video games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero, and are among the most difficult to perform. Let's see...what else? He's 55 years old, he's bald, he almost always wears sunglasses, and he's frequently referred to as one of the greatest--if not the greatest-- guitar players of all time. These are the facts.

Here are some opinions, and feel free to disagree: Satriani might have the fastest fingers in rock, but he will never, ever be cool. He just isn't. It's not that his music is styleless or substanceless--or "soulless," as most critics level--it's that Satriani has corny style. He's plenty soulful, but his particular brand of fret-noodling soulfulness is defiantly passé, a relic of the 1980s. Actually, scratch defiantly from that last sentence; I'm pretty sure "Satch" himself has no idea that he's so tragically un-hip. He just blithely does his thang, playing face-melting licks over vaguely sci-fi inspired instrumentals, with the help of a frankly boring prog-rockish backing band. Technical chops can only take you so far; what Satriani does seems less like music than a kind of endurance sport, where the goal is to play ever faster and with more precision. I understand admiring or being awed by Satriani's skillz--the z seems sadly appropriate here--but I don't really get how anyone could form an emotional attachment with his songs. To each his own, though, and if Satch's whammy-bar jams somehow stir your very soul, well, you've come to the right Blu-ray release.

Directed by François and Pierre Lamoureux, Joe Satriani: Satchurated was filmed live--in 3D!--at Montreal's Metropolis amphitheater, where Satch performed on December 12th, 2010, as part of "The Wormhole Tour." His band here consists of longtime drummer Jeff Campitelli, guitarist Galen Henson, keyboardist Mike Keneally, and bassist Allen Whitman, who looks disconcertingly like "Killer Bob" from Twin Peaks. Together, they run through a two-hour-plus, 22-song set-list that features material from throughout Satriani's career, but with an understandable emphasis on his latest album, "Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards," the title of which invariably reminds me of the recent Natalie Portman film hypothetically remade as a dirty Ralph Bakshi cartoon.

One of the laziest, most cliche criticisms you can throw at a musician is "all his songs sound the same," but in the case of Joe Satriani it's almost unavoidable: all his song sound the same. Oh, there are some minor variations in style--the Egyptian-sounding scales of "Hordes of Locusts," or the acoustic strummery of "Andalusia"--but there's a simple, fairly consistent formula at work here. 1.) The backing band riffs their way through a tight but rather uncomplicated and repetitive progression, while 2.) Satriani wails the ever-loving shit out of his Ibanez, running up and down the neck at a fingertip-scorching pace, arpeggiating like a madman, and pausing occasionally to sustain a single note until the crowd erupts into applause. Hammer on!

Like most concert Blu-rays, this is a "for fans only" title that's not likely to win any new converts to the Satriani fold, but will probably appease the faithful. Satriani burns though classics like "Flying in a Blue Dream," which could feasibly be used to score the menu for Nintendo's Pilotwings, and 1987's "Satch Boogie," a double-tapping extravaganza that was featured during the food fight scene in Problem Child 2. Standouts from the new album include "Littleworth Lane," a surprisingly restrained number, and "God is Crying," which has dueling banjos-style call and response solos between Satch and his keyboardist. At one point in the routine, Satriani does the old play-guitar-with-his-teeth trick, forcing Mike Keneally to bang on his synth with his nose. Poor guy. The low-point of the evening is probably "Big Bad Moon," where Satriani tries to sing but really only proves why he almost exclusively performs instrumentals.

Track list:

1. Ice 9
2. Hordes of Locusts
3. Flying in a Blue Dream
4. Light Years Away
5. Memories
6. War
7. Premonition
8. Satch Boogie
9. Revelation
10. Pyrrhic Victoria
11. Crystal Planet
12. The Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing
13. Dream Song
14. God is Crying
15. Andalusia
16. Littleworth Lane
17. Why
18. Wind in the Trees
19. Always with Me, Always with You
20. Big Bad Moon
21. Crowd Chant
22. Summer Song

Joe Satriani: Satchurated, Live in Montreal 3D Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Joe Satriani: Satchurated comes to Blu-ray with a combination 2D/3D disc, and the picture quality is decent, but far short of wowing. While I haven't been able to dig up any info on exactly what sort of 3D rig was used to shoot the film, the high definition digital footage is moderately clean and sharp and colorful. Clarity is decent, although the image can be a bit soft at times, and the vivid stage lighting is nicely saturated. Or, uh, satchurated. There are, however, some clear problems at the source and/or encode levels. I spotted occasional compression quirks, mostly noise and artifacts, but sometimes outright macroblocking, especially in darker and out-of-focus areas of the frame. This might not be as apparent on a smaller screen, but if you've got a large TV it's definitely noticeable. There are also moments when the image shudders a bit, usually up and down, though I suspect this is probably a camera stabilization issue, as it almost exclusively occurs during high overhead crane shots. Not surprisingly, the compression issues are less obvious in 3D, when your eyes are generally preoccupied with the illusion of depth in the image. There's a good sense of dimensionality here, especially when the camera swings low over the audience, with the band in the background. Some of the closeups, though, can be a little disorienting in 3D, particularly when the frame is cluttered with visual detail, like the stands and cymbals of Jeff Campitelli's drum kit. The extra dimension honestly doesn't add a lot to the experience, but it's there for those who want it.

Joe Satriani: Satchurated, Live in Montreal 3D Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

More impressive is the fact that Joe Satriani: Satchurated is the first 3D concert Blu-ray to feature lossless 7.1 sound, by way of a powerful Dolby TrueHD surround track. Whatever your opinion of Satriani's music, it's hard to deny that this mix sounds fantastic. Satch's backing band is anchored in the front channels--where they have a strong presence--while the guitar god's solos are extended back into the rear speakers, where they soar and squeal in the space behind your head. The cheers and clapping of the audience surround you from all sides as well, and there's definitely an illusory sense of being right there in the middle of the crowd. Dynamically, the mix is loud and intense, with deep bass, finely tuned mids, and bright, clean highs that never peak or crackle. I wish the drums sounded a bit punchier, but that's just a personal preference. The disc also includes a uncompressed Linear PCM 2.0 stereo track that's plenty capable, along with a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track that's noticeably quieter and more compressed.

Joe Satriani: Satchurated, Live in Montreal 3D Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Rehearsal Footage Bonus Tracks: Includes "Two Sides to Every Story" (1080p, 3D, 4:23) and "The Golden Room" (1080p, 2D, 7:20).
• Inside the Wormhole (1080p, 2D, 43:08): A comprehensive documentary about the making of Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards, featuring interviews with Satch, his bandmates, and recording engineer, along with lots of footage of the band fooling around in the studio. At one point, Satriani improvises a song about egg salad sandwiches.

Joe Satriani: Satchurated, Live in Montreal 3D Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I almost feel sorry for Joe Satriani; he's undoubtedly one of the best guitarists on the planet, but his style of showboat fretboard shredding has long been considered unfashionable. Still, those who admire Satch's guitar virtuosity will be pleased with Satchurated, a 3D concert experience that features decent picture quality and killer sound, with a room-rattling lossless 7.1 surround track. Satch-heads will also appreciate the disc's inclusion of "Inside the Wormhole," a forty-five-minute making-of documentary that follows Satriani and Co. inside the studio and on tour. For fans only.