In 1988 I was listening to this new instrumental guitar extravaganza on the radio called, Surfing with the Alien. It was by a guy named, Joe Satriani, who was the newest 6 string slinger in town. The single, Surfing with the Alien, was in heavy rotation on KLBJ, so I bought the CD and consumed all of the tracks for weeks on end.
At the time, I was attending all sorts of concerts that were touring through Austin, so, sure enough, Joe Satriani, came to town on April 29, 1988 and was scheduled to play at the Austin Opera House.
I was super excited and on the day of the concert. I drove over to the Austin Opera House just to see if I could get a glimpse of Joe. I parked my car and just walked around for a bit. His tour bus was parked in front of the main entrance and I could hear them doing sound check inside, which I thought was awesome.
I started walking into the venue, following the sound, and then, all of sudden, it stopped and by the time I got to the stage area, nobody was there. I did end up getting a good look at all the gear, etc. which for a fan like myself, is almost as cool as seeing the musicians that play them.
Anyway, I headed back to the parking lot to head out and I saw Joe standing near his tour bus. There were a few other fans around, only 2 or 3, so I just walked on over and asked him to sign a small piece of paper, promoting the concert, that I had found on the ground.
The thing I noticed most about Joe was he was really white and pale. He was all dressed in black so the contrast was extreme and he still had a head full of long black hair at the time. Anyway, he certainly was not from around here but was super nice, signed my flyer, and chatted with all of us for a bit and then excused himself to get some rest before the show.
I went to the show that night and was blown away. Joe was incredible and his bass player, Stu Hamm, was really wild. He took a bass solo in the middle of the show that was the craziest thing I had ever heard. People were chanting “Stuuuuuu” throughout the solo, which included the theme song from the Peanuts cartoon. I thought at first they were booing him, but then quickly realized the fans were just chanting his name. Stu would later come out with his own CD which I purchased at Waterloo records the day he was there signing autographs.
