Live in San Francisco
There's a scene in the film adaptation ofAmadeuswhere Austrian emperor/neophyte music critic Joseph II criticizes a new Mozart opera by simply blurting, "Too many notes!" Which brings us to Joe Satriani. The San Francisco-based virtuoso has earned his place in the rock guitar pantheon through hard work--even if he often seems to have mistakenly thought he was getting paid by the note. This collection (which tellingly grew from a modestly scaled TV project into one of rock's most problematic conceits--the double-live album) offers a sweeping overview of Satriani and his oeuvre, but that's a decided good-news, bad-news proposition. Fans and guitar clinicians will no doubt be awed by his technique; others may ponder why once in a while Joe can't express himself in 3 notes instead of his usual 349. Even the familiar swagger of "Satch Boogie" gets mired in a blizzard of 128th (or whatever) notes. But Satriani is to instrumental guitar rock what Evel Knievel is to off-road cycling, the Undertaker to thumb wrestling, and Howard Stern to civil discourse. Pick through the swirling flurries and mounting drifts of arpeggios and scales and there's enticing evidence of some real soul behind his shades. But too often Satriani simply blows past them as he plays to the back rows. Nobody's going to mistake it for Mozart--except maybe Emperor Joseph II.--Jerry McCulley