While rock guitar hero worship may have begun its ascendancy with Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix, and exploded beneath the fingers of Eddie Van Halen, it was arguably Joe Satriani's 1987 release Surfing with the Alien that represented the pinnacle of shred guitar. Sunday night at 713 Music Hall, Satriani and virtuoso guitarist Steve Vai performed together, more than 50 years after a 14-year-old Vai sought out an 18-year-old Satriani for guitar lessons.

What ensued was a loud, bombastic shred fest of epic proportions. Each guitar hero took a set and then finished on stage together in long, extended jams of two classic rock tunes.

There's an old joke that goes...

How many guitar players does it take play a show?
Ten - one to play and nine to stand there with their arms crossed and say, "I can do that."

No doubt there were a boatload of guitar players in the house Sunday night, but instead of arms crossed in judgement, there were mouths agape in awe of the brilliance from this pair of guitar icons.

Despite coming from the same pool of '80s guitar legends, "Satch" and Vai are markedly different musicians and guitarists. Vai cut his teeth as a teenage sideman for Frank Zappa, as complex and weird a gig as anyone could have. He then followed several other well-known players when he played with David Lee Roth after the charismatic singer left Van Halen, and perhaps the most celebrated group of metal guitar players ever in Whitesnake.

Since then, he has released a string of complicated and often odd instrumental records. Later this year, he'll be joining the original members of King Crimson to perform selections from their '80s rock fusion classics.

Satriani, on the other hand, structures his music with a much more rock-centric approach. He covers less sonic territory than Vai, but his songs are more memorable, probably one of the reasons he has had multiple guitar instrumentals in the top 40. Additionally, with the notable exception of rock "super group" Chickenfoot featuring Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony and Jason Bonham, Satriani has flown solo for the bulk of his career.

The contrast between the two was evident for those who really listened, but it was difficult to ignore the wah-wah, whammy bar, squealing harmonic similarities as well.

Vai opened with a set that plucked a number of songs from his most recent release, 2022's Inviolate. It peaked, however, with "For the Love of God" from his second release Passion and Warfare. The song did not originally have words, but Vai invited one of his former sound techs on stage to perform an operatic vocal. Apparently, the sound guy dabbles in opera? The anthemic song leant itself to a pretty stunning and grandiose vocal performance.

Satriani took the stage second and pulled primarily from his cannon of hits including "Surfing with the Alien," "Satch Boogie," "Always With Me, Always With You" and "Ice 9." Satriani took vocals himself once on "Big Bad Moon" from the 1989 album Flying in a Blue Dream. His set was clean and tight with an elevated classic rock feel. The title track from Flying in a Blue Dream was the highlight with its droning rhythmic undercurrent punctuated by Satriani's soaring guitar.

Both backup bands performed admirably — Vai's gets the nod for straight technical proficiency, but Satriani featured long-time sought after rock touring and session drummer Kenny Aronoff. (Side note: with their wrap around shades and bald heads, Satriani and Aronoff looked a bit like Pitbull's twin uncles.)

Eventually, at the end of Satriani's set, the two progenitors of shred guitar came together on stage, first to perform a song they recorded and released just this spring, "The Sea of Emotion, Part 1." But the real treat came when, backed by Satriani's band, they performed the Kinks classic "You Really Got Me," followed by a rendition of Metallica's "Enter Sandman."

Of course, Vai no doubt played "You Really Got Me" hundreds of times when touring with Roth as the cover of that song was a huge hit for Van Halen. And Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammet was yet another of Satriani's students who went on to find success on the instrument.

Despite having all the trappings of a rock show (yes, some 60-plus-year-old-men still wear leather pants on stage), it felt more like seeing jazz artists, only much MUCH louder. The crowd mostly sat down and, while certainly responsive, were not the raucous maniacs Vai and Satriani probably encountered in the '80s. Still, when those classic rock tunes started blaring, the devil horns came out and plenty pushed toward the stage.

It was a remarkably energetic show for both artists and they are clearly still having a blast doing what they do so extremely well. The fact that they continue to host large audiences for their unique brand of (mostly) instrumental music is a testament to both how incredibly talented they are and the staying power of great rock guitar.