Steve Vai and Joe Satriani have announced they have formed a band together for the first time in their 50-year musical careers – and they’ll be hitting the road together under the SatchVai Band moniker next summer.
Though the careers of the two electric guitar greats have been closely intertwined right from the outset – Satriani once tutored Vai, of course – the pair have never actually formed an official band with one another.
Sure, they’ve performed together over the years, and as recently as this year, Vai and Satch toured together both as part of the G3 Reunion, and then went out on their own for the high-profile Satch/Vai Tour.
The latter stint notably marked the pair’s first co-headline dates outside of those G3 shows, and was accompanied with new original music from Vai and Satch. Again, The Sea of Emotion Pt. 1 marked the first time the two had released music together.
Now, the master and the apprentice have taken their collaborative partnership to the next level by creating the (functionally named) SatchVai Band – the first official group the two virtuosos have formed together.
To mark the occasion, the SatchVai Band have announced the Surfing with the Hydra Tour (a nice nod to both players’ respective solo careers), which will take place across a series of EU countries in June and July next year.
According to a press release, it was the success of the Satch/Vai Tour that prompted the formation of an official band. What’s more, The Sea of Emotion Pt.1 is seemingly set to get a Pt.2, with a statement teasing, “Their second collaboration is set to be released just before the European tour, adding even more anticipation for this epic run.”
However, there could very well be more. When the pair spoke to Guitar World following the announcement of their joint Satch/Vai tour, Satriani revealed, “We have three pieces that are 90 percent finished. We’ve both got ridiculous schedules, so we’re not even thinking about how impossible it is to get it done. But we’ll figure it out.”
“The SatchVai Band Tour is happening! I’m so looking forward to sharing the stage with Steve again,” Satriani says of the new dates. “Every time we play together, it takes me back to when we were teenagers, eating and breathing music every second of the day, pushing, challenging, and helping each other to be the best we could be. I guess we’ve never stopped.”
“Touring with Joe is always a pleasure and an honor,” Vai adds. “He is my favorite guitarist to jam with, and now we have another opportunity to take it to the stage.
“I feel as though we are both at the top of our game, and the show will be a powerful celebration of the coolest instrument in the world, the electric guitar!”
The Surfing with the Hydra Tour is set to extend Vai and Satch’s hectic tour commitments from 2024 into next year. Indeed, both players have had rather crammed diaries over the past 12 months: after completing the G3 shows, Satch joined up with Sammy Hagar for The Best of All Worlds tour, while Vai linked up with Adrian for Beat, for which he’s been playing classic King Crimson material.
This next tour will kick off in York, UK, on June 13, and is currently scheduled to finish in Sofia, Bulgaria, on July 22. More dates are set to be announced.
Visit the SatchVai Band website for more.
Surfing with the Hydra Tour 2025 itinerary
- June 13 York, UK Barbican
- June 14 London, UK Eventim Apollo
- June 17 Glasgow, SC Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
- June 18 Wolverhampton, UK Civic Hall
- June 19 Manchester, UK O2 Apollo
- June 21 Clisson, FR Helfest
- June 22 Paris, FR Palais Des Congres
- June 23 Antwerp, BE Lotto Arena
- June 24 Amsterdam, NL Amsterdam Afas
- June 26 Copenhagen, DK Amager Bio
- June 29 Helsinki, FI House of Culture
- June 30 Tampere, FI Tampere Hall
- July 2 Uppsala, SE Parksnackan
- July 3 Oslo, NO Sentrum Scene
- July 5 Warsaw, PL Torwar
- July 8 Munich, DE Tollwood Festival
- July 10 Dusseldorf, DE Mitsubishi Electric Hall
- July 11 Frankfurt, DE Jahrhunderthalle
- July 12 Zurich, CH Volkshaus Zürich
- July 13 Milan, IT Comfort Festival @ Villa Casati Stampa
- July 15 Pordenone, IT Parco San Valentino
- July 16 Perugia, IT Umbria Jazz
- July 17 Bologna, IT Sequoie Music Park
- July 18 Saint-Julien, FR Guitares en Scene Festival
- July 20 Prague, CZ Forum Karlin
- July 22 Sofia, BG National Palace of Culture
