(deep breath) Here goes...
Joe’s concert last night was everything you’d ever want from a Joe Bonamassa show – and more!
Ben Montague was an ok support act with a nice voice, but I’d rather hear someone supporting Joe who can play a bit of blues, there are plenty of them about.
I will spare you a track by track review but the atmosphere was electric when Joe came onto the stage playing Django, and the crowd were in for a real treat. Having seen many live concerts in recent years I have seen great guitar players sound average and average guitar players sound rather good, but with Joe last night this was a guitar player at the top of his game. He did rocking, subtlety and everything in between, the playing with fluid and always tasteful. His vocals were strong, indeed they grew through the set and his band was superb.
Some of you may recall that one of my early posts was a review of Joe at the Arches in Glasgow last year, and if you got the feeling I was slightly underwhelmed then that was probably true.
At the time Joe was not particularly well, played too many fancy guitar parts rather than songs and the venue was cramped with a low ceiling.
See it here if you want:
http://www.jbonamassa.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=5232 
Last night everything seemed to be in place and the concert was 10 times better – this was the really Joe Bonamassa experience that I’d read about on here for so long! The balance and pace of the set list was spot on, the sound was great and significantly Joe was playing a venue worthy of his status. So forget the discussions on venues, each artist has a stage worthy of their achievements and Joe’s has risen from 40 to 2500 in four years in this city – no mean achievement.
Was great to hear so many new songs from the new album, as Tom says Happier Times and The Great Flood were two of the standout moments, indeed I had a little bit of an Icon (Ian Parker) moment during the solo of the latter. It was also fantastic to hear Blues Deluxe for the first time - this was the third Joe song I ever heard, and doesn’t he play it so well! Woke Up Dreaming had a flamenco style into and then seamed nicely into High Water Everywhere. Lonesome Road Blues was great too (although I could not get Jools’ smiling face out of my sight 
Unlike the reviewer above, I realised how much I like some of Joe’s songs that I really listen to, it was like that with Sloe Gin and Just Got Paid was enthralling. To top that we got Mountain Time and a superb version of Asking Around For You where Joe sang open mic after silencing some rowdy crowd members with his finger. Yes a little more conversation would have been nice, but we were there to see Joe play, not talk. All in all Joe was a class act from the first minute to the last. As I said, he is at the top of his game and I for one cannot wait til Monday. 
Standing outside in the Glasgow rain was worth it too as Joe did fool us by getting from the venue to the bus without us spotting him under his beano hat, but he did then come out again to sign autographs for those of us who had waited. When I told him my forum name as Tom says he said “Greenose from the forum, that’s awesome” as he signed my copy of TBOJH. Well it was not me, or my appearance that was awesome Joe, it was you – all night! 
Whatever happens at the Albert Hall Joe, you made me very happy with your performance last night and it’s one I will never forget. You are head and shoulders above the rest! As many of you may know, I don’t do gushing and unreserved praise very often, but I’m happy to make an exception in this case. Wherever you are if Joe is anywhere near to you, get yourself out to see this man and his band, he is unstoppable!
To sum up: A Superb and Breathtaking Performance! 
"The recently formed Edinburgh Blues Club has identified an appetite for the personal communication between musicians and audience that the blues long ago perfected." The Herald Newspaper (Scotland)
http://www.edinburgh-blues.uk
