Sheffield Arena 24th April 2017 aka Orange Suit and a Tie Night

Full review:

This was my first time seeing Joe in concert after having a ticket to the Shepherd's Bush Tour De Force show but not being able to get there. Decided to make an afternoon of it, so set off nice and early, parked at nearby Meadowhall and had a wander around before dinner at Five Guys and getting the tram across to the Arena.

Now, I decided to get there a bit early....okay a lot early....started to regret this as the Arena is quite exposed and I spent an hour standing in bitterly cold winds (or "beach weather" as we Yorkshire folk call them!!). Finally the doors were opened and we all filed in. This was where the only disappointment of the night was for me, the awful lack of merchandise. They only had the official tour t-shirts in Small, XL or XXL and only 1 other t-shirt to choose from. They did have every single CD and DVD, but no Blu-Rays (I would have bought Live At The Greek if they'd had the BR version), bought BCC Live Across Europe CD as it's one that I don't have and made my way into the Arena. My seat was great, unobstructed view of the stage and I'd called it right when I booked as I was sat on Joe's side of the stage so could see Mike working away getting the guitars ready etc. As is the way with Joe now, no support act and Joe was onstage at 8pm promptly (which seemed to catch quite a few people out).

Setlist along with guitar was as follows:

This Train - 66 Strat
Mountain Climbing - Pelham Blue JB Firebird
Blues Of Desperation - Pelham Blue Les Paul w/ Banjo Tuners
No Good Place For The Lonely - What looked like it would be the Snakebite replica, definitely a 59 reissue of some kind
How Deep This River Runs - Same Les Paul
Bougie With Stu - 67 Tele w/ Bigsby
Never Make Your Move Too Soon - 58 Korina Flying V (Amos?)
Angel Of Mercy - 58 Korina Flying V
Love Ain't A Love Song - 54 Hardtail Strat
Dust Bowl - 54 Hardtail Strat
My Little Girl - 58 Korina Flying V
Going Down - 58 Korina Flying V
How Many More Times (with a verse of Call Me The Hunter thrown in) - Nocaster w/ Humbucker in neck
Hummingbird - 54 Hardtail Strat

Amps-wise it looked like 3 High Powered Twins (one looked newer so I'm thinking it was the proto) and a Bassman - nothing new there. Couldn't see pedals, but I assume it was his signature wah and the new Way Huge Doubleland Special that he's been showing on Instagram lately.

Shame he dropped Mainline Florida and Pretending as I was looking forward to hearing them both - interesting to me that he dropped both Clapton numbers, I wonder if there was a reason why?

Highlights for me were How Deep This River Runs, Dust Bowl (loved the jazzy intro from Lee) and Hummingbird. Joe was on fire as were the rest of the band. I could have watched Michael Rhodes dancing along to some of the songs all night. You could certainly tell that this was a band that are really gelling and really enjoying working together.

Just over 2 hours of music and it flew past. Already planning on saving up to be able to go see Joe at the Royal Albert in 2019 (may be working there as well, but if he does multiple nights then I'll pay for really good seats for one of them and work any others to pay for those seats!!).

Thanks for the heads up, not the first time I've heard that about RAH. So Grand Tier centre is where I should aim for!!

If I'm there as a paying member of the audience, maybe....if I'm there working then I hope not as I'll be there as part of the medical crew!!