Pop Music Reviews : Satriani Runs the Gamut at Universal

Joe Satriani, a guitar god?

Naw, he’s just a regular-guy guitar wizard who picks up where Jeff Beck left off in the late ‘70s--and kinda stays there.

At the Universal Amphitheatre on Saturday, the guitarist-songwriter ran the gamut from head-on rockers (“Friends”) to the ethereal (“I Believe”) to the turbo-charged boogie-woogie of “Big Bad Moon,” the latter featuring Satriani’s capable vocals and a few licks on the harmonica to boot.

But more often than not Satriani just lets his fingers do the talking--and that’s saying quite a lot. In fact, at his level, Satriani deserves a little stronger support. On numbers such as “Cryin’,” with Satriani’s guitar wailing at its prettiest, he clearly outclassed his rhythm section (brothers Matt and Greg Bissonette, on bass and drums respectively). And a pedestrian lighting display kept the powerful “War” from being the tour de force it should have been.

Opening act Bad 4 Good is a novelty quartet of pre-legal hard-rockers built around the often-entertaining guitar playing of 13-year-old Thomas McRocklin. They’ve obviously been doing their homework as far as rock cliches go; the result is Not 2 Good.