First, let me say that I attended this concert with my wife, and we both thought Joe was great! He definitely did NOT disappoint. This was the first time I've seen him live since accidentally "discovering" him a little over 2 years ago on Palladia. I've since acquired all of Joe's (and BCC's) CDs and DVDs/BluRays, and find myself listening to Bonamusic probably 2/3s of the time I listen to music. Everything else just pales and I keep coming back.
This being said, I was less than thrilled with the Hippodrome itself as a concert venue. I'll second the complaint and estimate above that probably 1/5 of the theater suffered through some sort of obstructed view, and up this estimate to 1/4 of the theater for reasons other than the large hanging speakers - which we didn't actually have a problem with at all.
We sat about 11 rows back on the orchestra level, BUT in seats 5 & 6 from the right side of the theater somewhat near the first side door. From this poor viewpoint, we could not see either Tal or Carmine, who tends to play standing pretty much in front of the drums, AT ALL. They were blocked by the right stage opening/curtains, apparently setup way in the back right corner of the stage. Maybe 10% of the time we could see Carmine if he moved a little toward the stage center, but you couldn't even begin to see Tal's drum kit, much less Tal himself, until you hit the 7th or 8th seat from the side of the theater - which isn't all that big to begin with. I suspect those on the left side of the theater couldn't see Arlan either, since he was setup in the back left corner rather than the right. However, Arlan was very easy to see from our viewpoint - and most importantly the star of the show was also highly visible from the right side of the theater the vast majority of the concert - unless he walked back toward the drums. So, at least we had that big advantage over those on the sides of the upper tiers who apparently got to stare at the big hanging speakers all evening. While we were most happy to be able to see Joe himself pretty much the whole time, it was weird watching 1/2 a band play most of the night, with drums and bass seemingly coming from nowhere.
It's pretty sad when a huge portion of the seats in a theater - probably up to 10 seats in from either side (11 rows back), and even more than that in the rows farther back, can't even see all the performers. Perhaps Tal was set up a bit farther back in the corner of the back stage than is normal at the Hippodrome, but it seemed a bit ridiculous to us.
Another issue was the sound - perhaps due to the acoustics on the right side of the theater? When the low frequencies from the bass and drums were loud, the mid-to-high frequencies were pretty much inaudible. For instance, we could see Joe singing during the high-bass periods on the louder tracks, but he was often very hard to hear as were the keyboards, if not totally drowned out at times. But when the bass mellowed out during quieter periods, the sound was overall quite good - such as during Midnight Blues and Sloe Gin for instance (which were ***sweeeeettt***!).
So, for anyone considering attending a concert at the Hippodrome in the future, I would NOT recommend any seat that isn't at least 12 columns in from the sides of the theater - pretty much up the center straight back from the stage. I might consider attending an event there again in the future, since I was less than thrilled with the Hippodrome itself from a seating and visibility perspective, but only if I can score seats up the center.
BTW, we definitely noticed the tall, bearded drunk dude everyone's been complaining about, since he was not too far to the front and left of us near the front on the right side of the center section of seats. He kept standing up the whole time and pointing at Joe, obviously utterly wasted. I remember thinking - "well at least we're not sitting behind THAT guy!" 
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Moving from the negative comments back to the positive, I was very happy to finally see Joe live. He was fantastic, definitely living up to my expectations after having watched bazillions of JB youtube videos over the past couple years. I also commented to my wife that there seemed to be quite a bit of extended jamming on a number of the songs - much more than I've seen on JB's concert DVDs and youtube videos in the past. This was *really* cool to witness, and Joe and Arlan at least (couldn't see anyone else) seemed to be having quite a bit of fun. Maybe Joe should chug huge quantities of cold medicine before the show more often!?
I have to say though that I hope Kevin and J&R keep cranking out the live concert BluRays like they have been. Clear & concise DTS surround sound heard in the comfort of my family room, with an unobstructed view of the full stage on a huge big screen TV, is hard to beat. However, live is cool now and again just to say you were there if nothing else, to feel the bass, and to witness and partake in the crowd energy and excitement. It was definitely high.
Please, and advance gracious and grateful Thank-Yous, Joe Beaconaissance!
