Joe Satriani is one of a handful of living guitarists who most other professional guitarists only wish they could play like. He is a guitarist's guitarist - Steve Vai and Kirk Hammet used to take lessons from the guy for Christ's sake! He is also one of the few instrumental rock guitarists who actually knows how to write a decent song.

Although his style is most closely associated with the rock and metal genres, he also infuses touches of blues, jazz, prog, and even electronica into his playing. It is a special kind of guitar fan who can sit through and enjoy an hour-long instrumental guitar album, or a two-hour concert worth of the same stuff, but many do, and they have made Joe Satriani one of the most popular instrumental guitarists on the planet.

On his 1989 album, Flying In A Blue Dream, Satriani debuted his vocals for the first time, singing on a half-dozen of that album's songs, and he most recently sang on two songs from his 2004 release, Is There Love in Space? Even so, he is still predominantly known as an instrumental guitarist. As far as his vocal skills go, let's just say that he makes Steve Vai's singing sound good. I'd rather he use the occasional guest vocalist, or just stick to the instrumentals. Happily, Satriani Live is an all instrumental affair.

Since his first album, Not Of This Earth, debuted in 1986, Satriani, or "Satch," as he is known by friends and fans, has gone on to release 10 more full-length studio albums, along with three live albums. 1993's Time Machine is a half-live, half-studio, double-CD set, so I included it in both categories. Satriani is also the driving force behind G3 - the guitar fan's dream tour he started in 1996 with Steve Vai. He and Steve have gone on to tour almost every year under the G3 moniker, with such other guitar luminaries as Eric Johnson, John Petrucci, Yngwie Malmsteen, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and Robert Fripp joining them. These incredible tours have also produced three live CD/DVDs; G3: Live In Concert, Live In Denver, and Live In Tokyo.

Satriani Live is the follow up to Joe's excellent 2001 concert DVD, Live In San Francisco. It was shot live May 3, 2006 at The Grove in Anaheim, California, during Satriani's Super Colossal world tour. It is also essentially the "Super Colossal Live" show, seeing that nine of that album's thirteen songs are performed, taking up half of the entire concert.