27/03/12 - Usher Hall, Edinburgh

Wow. Just... wow. That was easily one of the best gigs I've been to, probably the best. Having to travel through to Edinburgh was mildly inconvenient - I booked presale tickets before the Glasgow date was announced - but we made a day of it, and we couldn't have asked for better weather. I think it was hitting 20 degrees C by mid afternoon.

For my first Bonamassa gig the setlist was pretty much perfect, it was more or less identical to the Sheffield show but minus You Better Watch Yourself (I think). Slow Train kicked things off perfectly, Last Kiss boogied along with Rick playing tambourines for the verses, and Midnight Blues was beautifully played. Sloe Gin, the track that got me in to Joe in the first place (probably true for many of his fans) was just awesome, and following up with John Henry kept the momentum going through Lonesome Road Blues and beyond.

It felt like Joe was going to tear into a screamer at any moment in Blues Deluxe, but he kept it reigned in and showed that he's just as fine a player when he cleans up as he is with the gain at 11. If anything it helped to build the tension that was finally released in Young Man Blues. Woke Up Dreaming was stellar; I was most looking forward to this song and Joe didn't disappoint. Mountain Time was a beautiful finale to the main set.

When the band left the stage, one of the stagehands set up a second microphone next to Joe's. I saw Joe arrive at the venue earlier in the day with Sandi so I figured she was going to be joining him, the question though was, what were they going to play? I was secretly hoping it would be Bird on a Wire as I know she's joined him in the past for that song, and it's another of my favourites, but it turned out to be Joe's new song Driving Toward the Daylight played on what I think was a regular Fender Telecaster rather than a Gigliotti, but I could be wrong. Joe brought the house down with Just Got Paid flavoured with bits of Dazed and Confused, his guitar roaring louder than ever to round off an excellent night.

Thinking back on it I can't really find anything to criticise from a musical point of view. I think Joe's vocals could've been a little bit louder as it was sometimes hard to hear him over his standard rhythm volume, and I still think that John Henry is better tuned to C (a la the Albert Hall rendition) but I'm just nit-picking, the on-stage dynamic that the band has is incredible. Joe's found an excellent drummer in Tal, without a doubt the most entertaining drummer I've seen live (and I've seen both Mike Portnoy and Nicko McBrain now!). The real detractor from the experience was the group of people sat next to me and my girlfriend who were already a bit half-cut when they took their seats, every 3rd or 4th song we had to let one of them out to go to the bar or whatever, and the rest of the time contend with them being a bit rowdy and talking over the quieter moments in the set, but I suppose you have to expect that when you go to a show.

We got the best possible ending to our night by waiting around to meet Joe after the show! He signed the scratchplate of my Les Paul, my girlfriend's copy of the Beacon Theater DVD and both of our tickets, and even posed for a photo with us. They seemed in a little bit of a rush to get away which was a bit disappointing, but to be fair they did have a 200 mile plus journey to Liverpool ahead of them. The rest of the band were nowhere in sight, but we managed to get a photo with Carmine before the show when he went outside for a chat with the fans in the sunshine.

All in all it was a great day and a great show. I'll be at the front of the queue for tickets the next time he's in town.