Concert Review: The ‘Surfing with the Hydra Tour’ celebrated multiple generations of majestic musicianship

By Jeff Miers

(Above: L-R: Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Kenny Aaronoff at Kleinhans, Buffalo, NY, 5/12/2026. All photos by Michael Lee Jackson.)

The mainstream media has been arguing that electric guitar-based music is on its last legs for almost as long as the electric guitar has existed. Even as guitar rock exploded in the late ’60s, naysayers were sounding the death knell. This happened again in the ’70s, when some folks insisted that disco (which, ironically, prominently featured serious funk guitar riffage) meant the end of rock. And again in the ’80s, as synths became ubiquitous. This has been happening consistently ever since, perhaps due to the fact that music journalism has long been at least partially populated by lazy sods who don’t actually know very much about music. So it goes …

Meanwhile, musicians, and a healthy portion of the music-consuming public, continue to ignore the memo. And electric guitar-based music continues to thrive and evolve, holding appeal for multiple generations of people who aren’t music critics.

Case in point — the ongoing SatchVai Band tour, which stopped by Kleinhans Music Hall in Buffalo on Tuesday, May 12.

Multiple generations of guitarists came together for this 3-plus hour tour de force celebrating the enduring power and majesty of the electric guitar. And if Kleinhans was, rather surprisingly, not completely sold out on the night, those who were in attendance were granted a gift of superb musicianship, proof-positive that instrumental rock music was built to last, and that it continues to morph.

Joe Satriani and Steve Vai have known each other for decades, initially bonding as teens growing up on Long Island. The oft-told story has grown into the stuff of apocryphal legend, but it is also true — Vai took guitar lessons from Satriani, who is four years his elder, when Vai was a 13-year-old budding genius. The two have been friends ever since, but despite one-offs and shared bills, the formation of the SatchVai Band marks their first official partnership, and the current Surfing With the Hydra Tour is a celebration of this union 50-odd years in the making.

This scenario already made the show special, but the addition of Animals As Leaders to the bill sealed the deal.

That band — a trio with a massive sound, comprising two guitarists, Tosin Abasi and Javier Reyes, and a drummer, Matt Garstka — opened the evening’s proceedings with stunningly complex, polyrhythmic, dense instrumental music that was long on virtuosity, but also smartly composed and thematically unified. In essence, Abasi is to his generation what Vai and Satriani are to theirs: an artist on the leading edge, able to advance the instrument in both technical and harmonic ways.

Animals As Leaders are a dynamic and nuanced band, to be sure, but the trio certainly took to the Kleinhans stage with their phasers set to stun. An aggressively dynamic light show moved in perfect synchronicity with the band’s music, which, to the uninitiated, might have sounded a bit “all over the place,” but with repeated exposure begins to make perfect sense. I mean, if people can become acclimated to Angine de Poitrine without much difficulty, then Animals As Leaders is similarly and certainly worth the same effort.

The band was louder than hell, which suits the music. But maybe too loud for the room. Kleinhans was designed for orchestras, after all, and the room can pose a challenge for heavily amplified music. Far better to err on the side of reducing both stage volume and front-of-house decibel levels, particularly for a band employing as much nuance as Animals As Leaders. Some of that nuance was, sadly, compromised during the show. That said, Kleinhans’ illustrious history includes performances by the likes of Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, all groups that favor blistering volume levels. So there’s that.

The sound did improve as the opening set progressed, and in the end, their performance suffered little due to the audio onslaught. This is a special band, one able to bring progressive rock tropes to bear on bombastic metal, with an eye toward your Djent-al Health. Their inclusion in the show (and the tour) speaks to this music’s multi-generational appeal and continued resonance.

The stars of the show then duly arrived. From the downbeat, we were in for a wild ride, one that was comprised in part of lessons in guitar tone manipulation, exegeses on the indomitability of the perfect groove, jaw-dropping displays of pure virtuosity, studies in song craft sans vocals, as well as the oft-overlooked significance of the ability to leave space, and the awareness of just how sacred that space can be.

Part of what makes the Surfing With the Hydra Tour so cool is the fact that the band has new music to perform and feature. The opening song, “Dancing,” set the tone for the evening. A smoking groove over a cool chord progression and memorable ensemble motifs gave way to stellar soloing from both of the band’s namesakes. “I Wanna Play My Guitar,” another new song, followed, and featured bassist Marco Mendoza ably handling the lead vocal, originally tracked by guest Glenn Hughes on the studio version. This was a riff-o-rama in the mold of early Montrose, a la “Bad Motor Scooter” or “Rock Candy.” The third installment in the trilogy of new tracks came in the form of the seriously impactful “The Sea of Emotion Pt. 1,” a deeply dramatic, Zeppelin-esque, Phrygian mode strut with plenty of opportunities for star turns from both Satch and Vai. This was breathtaking stuff.

Both Vai and Satriani then took turns fronting the band for a few tunes before reconvening to offer musical commentary on each other’s compositions. Vai gave us torrid versions of “Zeus in Chains” and “Little Pretty,” while Satriani offered turbo-charged takes on “Surfing with the Alien” and “Sahara.”

The individual pieces were excellent, but the true magic was most evident when the two guitarists shared the stage, so clear was the joy they took in playing together and off of each other. It was truly beautiful to witness.

A shout-out is absolutely for the band, with drummer Kenny Aaronoff earning ‘man-of-the-match’ status for his muscular grooves and John Bonham-like ability to root the music in something more than solid.

Bassist Mendoza and guitarist Pete Thorn were also much more than sidemen throughout, adding to both the harmonic intricacy and the earth-shaking grooves. These guys truly brought the thunder.

SatchVai Band: Surfing With the Hydra, with guests Animals As Leaders

Kleinhans Music Hall

Buffalo, NY

5/12/2026

Animals As Leaders

Gestaltzerfall

Nephew

Micro-Aggressions

Physical Education

Tempting Time

The Woven Web

The Brain Dance

Red Miso

Monomyth

CAFO

SatchVai Band

Dancing

I Wanna Play My Guitar

The Sea Of Emotion Pt. 1

Zeus in Chains

Little Pretty

Ice 9

Flying in a Blue Dream

Surfing with the Alien

Sahara

Tender Surrender

Teeth of the Hydra

Satch Boogie

If I Could Fly

For the Love of God

Always With Me, Always With You

Encore:

Crowd Chant

Born to Be Wild

---

Miers on Music is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Subscribe