Bonamassa Channels Kings and Wows Crowd in Camden, NJ

When the house lights went down at the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, New Jersey on Friday August 7th, three spirits of three blues kings hovered over the amphitheatre. But one blues titan appeared in the flesh. That blues titan was Joe Bonamassa, and when the stage lights turned up he spent the next few hours thrilling, entertaining, and deeply moving the crowd of blues fans. Mr. Bonamassa played 21 songs over a period of two hours, a lengthy and meaty show during which Bonamassa remained vibrant, charismatic, and impossible to take your eyes off of.

We weren’t the only fans who were digging this show, as the whole crowd was going wild for the material and Joe’s performance. “Joe and the band’s arrangement of “Hummingbird” was just awesome!!!” exclaimed one fan – and it was. A second fan agreed, “[Hummingbird] was so good live Fri night!” Another fan gushed, “What a show!... He was truly on his game. The encore was perfection” Indeed it was! The interaction between the extremely enthusiastic crowd and the band heightened the evening’s greatness even further.

The opening night of Joe Bonamassa’s summer tour featured an impressive eleven-piece band that boasted many bright stars of the blues, including guitarist Kirk Fletcher and Michael Rhodes on the bass, that were able to not only keep up with Bonamassa but help him make the Three Kings material to shine even brighter than it already does. Bonamassa was totally in his element, as if he was born to play blues music at these kind of amphitheatre shows.

Bonamassa is a triple threat: guitarist, singer, and songwriter, but this night it was really the first two on display. His solos can range from violent passionate shred to the most subtle use of dynamics, bends, and harmonics on his guitar. He’s able to fully capture the emotion of every note he plays and stir people’s souls while he’s doing it, and it earned him multiple standing ovations over the course of the evening. Oftentimes, Bonamassa’s guitar-playing is so exceptional and one-of-a-kind that his excellent, soulful voice is underappreciated, but on this night everyone had to stand up and take notice that this man can sing those blues, with his smooth vocals shaking you to your core.

The night featured plenty of covers from the Three Kings of the Blues, opening with “See See Baby” by Freddie King, an upbeat, swinging party of a blues song during which Joe let the saxophones of the horn section share the spotlight before ripping a hard-edged guitar solo himself, punctuated by Anton Fig’s steady pounding drums and the welcome punctuations of the brass. Armed with his cherry red semi-hollow body guitar, Bonamassa nailed the first tune and showed everyone why he’s the master of remaining rooted in deep blues tradition while being able to launch himself into a contemporary sound and style of blues that’s all his own.

One of the highlights of the night was Bonamassa’s rendition of B.B. King’s incredible/pitiful “Nobody Loves Me But My Mother,” a slow blues augmented by the subtle playing of Reese Wynans on the keys and backed by the very-abled vocals of Mahalia Barnes, Jade MacRae, and Juanita Tippins Latukefu. But it was Bonamassa that totally owned the song, sending soaring vocals out into the night and being careful to pay the upmost respect to this song with his first gentle, then smoking guitar soloing. Bonamassa certainly didn’t need to worry that nobody loved him but his mother – there were thousands of people loving Joe in Camden on this night!

Another shining moment of the night was Bonamassa’s take on “Born Under a Bad Sign,” a classic staple made famous by Albert King in 1967. Joe wailed away on his Flying V and took ownership of a song that has been covered by everyone from Cream to Etta James to Jimi Hendrix to Homer Simpson (yes. That Homer Simpson!)

When Joe closed the show with one of blues music’s greatest hits, a stirring rendition of the B.B. King classic, “The Thrill Is Gone,” for one brief moment you almost hear the ghost of B.B. King singing through Bonamassa. A magical moment indeed, but then Joe returns to himself, interpreting this incredible music through the lens of the various influences that have been important to him, including British Blues and Jimi Hendrix, and have come to help Joe Bonamassa create his own sound in the storied history of blues music.

There’s no doubt in our minds that Joe Bonamassa, despite the different surname, belongs with the Kings of the Blues in the lore of the music. Joe Bonamassa proved on this Friday night that he is the perfect interpreter not just for British blues but also for the American brand. Add that to the incredible original music he’s produced on his own, and it’s pretty evident that Joe Bonamassa is doing much more than simply keeping the blues alive. He’s keeping it burning hot as fire.