Joe Satriani with Steve Morse @ Hard Rock Live in Orlando, Florida – Friday, September 13th, 2013

If you had cleared your mind of want, things return to you.

About a decade ago, I had purchased a pair of $70 tickets to see Joe Satriani at the House of Blues in Orlando, Florida. The bill for that night had been King’s X, Dream Theater and “Satch.” Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond my control, I had to leave 10 minutes into Satriani’s set. On Friday, September 13, 2013, a lifelong friend had righted that wrong, by providing tickets to Satriani at the Hard Rock Live in Orlando, Florida.

For this show, one of the key differences had been the opening act, Steve Morse. Like King’s X, Steve Morse had employed a three piece band. His sound had more in common with the musical style of Satriani, than the over indulgent Dream Theater. At age 59, Morse had been impressive with fluid guitar movements up and down his fret board. The bass player and drummer had completed their sound with deep driving grooves. With impromptu bass solos, great drum fills, and syncopation, Steve Morse had been an unexpected surprise for an opening act.

Not to be out done, at age 57, Satriani had promptly started at 9 PM with his two hour set. To Satriani’s credit, he had knocked out, almost uninterruptedly, his high energy performances. For a novelty act, amazingly the audience had a broad range of people. The faces had run from tween to the seasoned rock fans, plus a fair share of women. For a while, I had listened to few numbers on the first floor. Despite consuming two sodas worth of caffeine and sugar, waking up at 3 am had started to catch up with my night. What I had luckily discovered, the building’s unique acoustics. Moving to the John Lennon room, I had been able to clearly hear all the action below, while comfortably sitting on a huge white curved couch. Hanging out with some friends, I had alternated locations, with full on concert on level 1 and relaxing chill on level 2. Toward the end of the evening, I had wandered out on the second floor balcony. With my eyes drifting to the sky’s half moon and Satriani in the background, I had thought,”Not bad at all!”