Review: Joe Bonamassa, Cardiff Motorpoint Arena

Joe Bonamassa is quite possibly the best guitarist in the  world. If not he is certainly close to the top of a very competitive pile.

It’s not just that he can play lots of notes – and in the right  order – but that he does so in a variety of styles and voices.

There are many fine musicians out there who rule their own  genre-specific kingdoms but Bonamassa does not lend himself  to traditional pigeon-holing.

He uses the blues as a base from which to explore the  musical universe with forays into folk, bluegrass, funk, rock,  jazz and all points in between with self-penned songs landing  randomly in numerous categories.

He is also precociously young in blues terms but has still  been performing for a  quarter of a century.

His career began in  1989 at the age of 12  when he opened for BB  King. 15 solo albums  later he performs on average 200 live gigs every  year.

Unlike his superb  backing band he doesn’t  look like a blues man  either.

Suited and sun-glassed  he is more reminiscent of  a young Quentin Tarantino but as soon as he  plays there can be no mistaking his identity.

He entertained a near-capacity Motorpoint Arena audience  throughout and although they were onside from the first  number he showed no signs of taking this for granted and  maintained an excellent rapport with his fans, some of whom  had travelled from France and Germany to see him.

His songs are memorable and serve as perfect vehicles with  which to demonstrate his versatility.

He plays delicately and subtly then switches to driving rock and back to wailing blues riffs within a single number while for other numbers he sits alone on stage and plays acoustic guitar  with unbelievable speed and panache.

Unlike many blues-rock guitarists, Bonamassa cited his influences as being British and Irish blues acts, rather than  American artists and there is a distinctive Celtic influence in  many of his numbers, a fact that didn’t escape a hugely appreciative Welsh audience.

Joe Bonamassa shows why he's highly rated at the Bic

IF YOU were to ask people to make a list of who is the most gifted guitarist around at the moment then you would probably get a variety of answers.

Eric Clapton, Joe Satriani, Carlos Santana and a host of others would be there and one name that would be at the top or there about of everyone’s list is Joe Bonamassa.

Discovered at the age of 12, he has been on stage ever since. He must be one of the busiest musicians of any genre around at the moment with a constant string of live dates around the world, album and DVD releases and collaborations with a list of names that most can only dream of.

And on Friday he brought his amazing talent to Bournemouth.

The evening started with an acoustic version of Palm Trees followed by four more numbers including an excellent cover of Jelly Roll by Charles Mingus, when he was joined by his band of outstanding musicians.

This segment ended with firm favourite Woke Up Dreaming and from then on it was plugged in and turned up loud.

And boy it was loud.

Dust Bowl, Driving Toward the Daylight and Django were interspersed by more covers: Midnight Blues by Gary Moore, Howling Wolf’s Who’s Been Talking and a few minutes of Wont Get Fooled Again by The Who filled the next two hours.

Each song demonstrated why Mr Bonamassa is in such demand.

Whether playing blues or rock, on his own or when joined by Bernie Marsden from Whitesnake, Joe showed why he is at the top.

After two hours the main set came to an end with a rousing version of Mountain Time, but he soon returned to play the tune of the night Sloe Gin and send everyone home happy with the Ballad of John Henry.

Derek Daniel

Joe was Bon great form as
guitarist wows crowd

JOE BONAMASSA proved at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre why he is renowned as one of the greatest guitar players on the planet.

The American, who is famed for his British-blues style of playing, filled his own support slot with an acoustic set in support of his recent DVD and CD release An Acoustic Evening at the Vienna Opera House.

The short but mesmeric set on the acoustic opened the two hour plus show before Bonamassa roared into Dust Bowl with an electric and his band.

His scintillating guitar tone sings around the arena and it has to be heard live to be believed.

A seated audience can sometimes feel dead, for Bonamassa however it fits well with a crowd mainly in awe admiring his faultless playing. The crowd nodding and tapping along to every beat and breaking into rapturous applause as their guitar hero finishes each song.

Not one to engage with the crowd much - Bonamassa seems to enjoy letting his fingers do the talking – he does pause to thank the near-capacity crowd for coming to his show before telling them it is his first show in Aberdeen in his 25 year musical career.

What can often be overlooked with Bonamassa – due to the quality of his playing – is his voice. The bluesman has an exceptionally good one. Close your eyes and there are times you would swear Paul Rodgers of Free and Bad Company fame was on the stage in front of you due to his tone and quality.

In recent years Bonamassa has become huge business around the world not least in the UK – his reputation in the country is so great some of his fellow Americans mistake him for a Brit.

Last year, his latest studio album Driving Towards the Daylight debuted at number two in the UK chart – only kept off the top spot by the north-east’s own Emeli Sande – tracks including Dislocated Boy and the album’s title track make an appearance going down well with the crowd.

Disappearing before his encore the crowd rose to its feet urging the suit-wearing tasteful shredder back to the stage, not relenting until he arrived back to deliver crowd favourites Sloe Gin – after a tale of complaints about the three times he has not played the song since 2006 – and the Ballad of John Henry before taking his final applause of the night.

It will be a long time before guitar fans in Aberdeen are treated to a musician of Bonamassa’s quality again and fans will only be hoping that the Granite City can become

Gig review: Joe Bonamassa, Edinburgh

"Greetings, Edinburgh," saluted the wildly popular new generation American blues rocker Joe Bonamassa, a full three quarters of the way into his set, informing us that "we’ve played a whole Scottish tour this time – we’ve been to Aberdeen and now we’re in Edinburgh".

Playhouse

****

No luck, then, for the Glaswegian who came up to chat outside the venue earlier in the day and rebuked such sentiments with a gruff "Aberdeen doesn’t count."

For the 3,000-plus who packed this show out, however, the set had the air of a pilgrimage. Although the 36-year-old guitarist, originally from Oneida County in upstate New York, is probably too young to have earned the "legend" tag, his music is perfectly moulded for elder fans, largely gentlemen, who tend to put their idols on a pedestal. The choice of covers reflected this, including appearances from the vaults of Howlin’ Wolf, Eric Clapton and Gary Moore, with a blazing version of the instrumental outro from the Who’s Won’t Get Fooled Again appearing near the end.

This sense that he’s part of a predestined lineage is Bonamassa’s strength and his weakness. With a three-piece band who look like a reformed biker gang, he seems somehow wasted on ploughing a furrow many others have been through already. With the volume turned up to punishing levels, his own music – the everyman iconography of Dislocated Boy, Driving Towards the Mountain’s desert balladry, the affecting Mountain Time – marry the styles of the past with youthful vitality to engrossing effect.

Approaching his 25th year as a professional musician, Joe Bonamassa continues to blaze a remarkably versatile artistic trail, and amass an authentic, innovative and soulful body of work.

There is so much to talk about Bonamassa aside from his raw talent – his independent approach to the music business, his passion and tireless work ethic, a diverse range of side projects and his promotion of the blues to the next generation. It’s all admirable stuff, but tonight in Birmingham, it’s just about sitting back to watch and listen to one of the world’s greatest guitar players, on the penultimate show of his current UK arena tour.

Slick as ever, in suit and sunglasses, Bonamassa enters to a rousing reception and sits centre stage to begin a five-song set of acoustic material, along with African drums and piano. ‘Palm Trees, Helicopters and Gasoline’ is followed by a cover of Bad Company’s ‘Seagull’, before – around the campfire versions of – Charles Mingus’ ‘Jelly Roll’ and ‘Athens to Athens’. Accompanying band members then retreat during a stomping rendition of ‘Woke Up Dreaming’, which sets the audience up for the main show.

Strapping on a classic sunburst Les Paul, Bonamassa lets loose through the full electric powerhouse tunes ‘Dust Bowl’ and ‘Story of a Quarryman’. It’s a sound, solid mix of the blues-rock guitar virtuoso backed by his band of exceptional quality and talent – Carmine Rojas (bass), Derek Sherinian (keyboards), and Tal Bergman (drums).

There are mesmerising adaptations of Howling Wolf’’s ‘Who’s Been Talking’ and Eric Clapton’s ‘Someday After A While’, which includes one of a number of stand-out keyboard solo’s by Sherinian.

Bonamassa is handed his wow-worthy Ernie Ball Music Man double-neck guitar for the groove laden ‘Dislocated Boy’, before ‘Driving Towards The Daylight’ highlights the soulfully emotional end of his vocal range. Having joked at live performances about never writing a “hit” song, this has got to be a close as it gets – albeit a ballad with a simple, compelling chorus.

The show’s impressive lighting production momentarily turns dramatic as Tal Bergman hammers out the opening to the foot-stamping ‘Slow Train’, which leads us into a fantastic cover of Gary Moore’s ‘Midnight Blues’ where Bonamassa lets fly – not for the first time this evening – with a jaw-dropping solo. After which, as a man who lets his music do the talking, we hear from him.

“Good evening. Thanks for coming out on a Friday night. We’ve been here for a couple of days, hanging out, checking out your nightlife, your restaurants, your girls ..” begins his casual repartee, before introducing the band and being joined onstage by original Whitesnake guitarist Bernie Marsden for a version of Freddie King’s ‘Look Over Yonders Wall’ – Marsden showing what he is still made of.

Black Country Communion’s ‘Song For Yesterday’, the elegant and melodic instrumental ‘Django’ and an energetic ‘Mountain Time’ bring the two-hour show to a climatic end, before the band re-emerge for the encore.

Saying he had recently pulled Tim Curry’s epic ‘Sloe Gin’ from his set for the first time in nine years, only to receive a message from a disgruntled fan, who had taken his wife to a show to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary and been devastated he hadn’t played it – Bonamassa introduces the song: “Ladies and gentlemen, not one to wish to disappoint, I give you Sloe Freakin’ Gin”.

With this, the beautifully, fluid number is given an outing that must have every hair, on the back of every neck in the arena standing to attention.

To finish, the band drop the hammer with a heavier than heavy, powerful rendition of ‘The Ballad of John Henry’, the fantastic, meaty blues-rock number with yet another otherworldly guitar solo from the man himself. Leaving the crowd to do nothing other than stand and applaud an astonishing performance by an astonishing artist.

Whilst I’d seen Bonamassa three times previously – twice solo and once with Black Country Communion, I had not expected to be blown away anymore than on previous occasions. However, that was a totally incorrect assumption on my behalf.

Review & Photography: Steve Johnston

thelatest.co.uk

Wildly popular blues/rock practitioner Joe Bonamassa puts on a slick show, pressing his audience’s buttons with well-practised ease. Wearing a natty suit and wielding a selection of classic guitars, Joe’s arena-friendly blues is a record executive’s dream, and while his tunes and playing are both excellent, they lack a sense of individuality at times: now it sounds like Born Under A Bad Sign; this passage sounds like Jeff Beck. You know what you’re going to get with Joe, and with his powerful, emotive voice he delivers song after song, but it’s hard to picture him in a smoky Chicago dive.