Coach House Show 11/10&11-Joe's 20th Anniversary!

I was at both shows and also attended the sound check during the day.  I had a press pass as I was scheduled to interview Joe later in the day (BTW, it went great- will post to interview forums later on).

The reason Joe's Live Rig was not there was that this was a "fly in"gig.  He was primarily on the West Coast for the Guitar Center KOB event in Hollywood; but they decided to add 2 shows at the Coach House and we are all the luckier for that!!!
All of his regular equipment is gearing up for Europe.  So, he only had a couple of his Marshall Speaker cabinets and had to rent the two Marshall JCM 2000 heads.  There was also a Marshall JMP head, but I never saw it plugged in.  His pedal board was minimal- Boss Dig Delay, Boss Chorus, Ibanez 808 Tube Screamer, Tremolator, Wah Wah pedal, and two different Mogami cords (1 for electric, 1 for acoustic).
His guitars were the Bonamassa #52 Goldtop with creme plastic (one of the prototypes), MusicMan John Petrucci Baritone, Gibson Firebird, Les Paul w/ Bigsby, MusicMan Double Neck 6/6 & 12/6, and two Cherry Burst LP's, along with the Yamaha 6 st Acoustic (complete with beach towels stuffed inside!)

Did you all notice that new section of music on "Ball Peen Hammer" on the 1st nights show?? He actually just came up with that during the sound check and decided to add it to the live set that night, but later decided NOT to do it on the 11th; he said that they would be saving that new section for the European tour.  This was the 1st time I had seen him play that on an electric 12 string (The MusicMan 12/6 double neck was used-I will post photos later).

Joe announced to the audience that this was his 20th anniversary as a professional musician and his 10th time at the Coach House.  He was thankful to Gary (Coach House owner) who took a chance on this once unknown kid guitarist, and allowed him to play.  The Coach House is literally wall papered with the 8x10's of the hundreds (thousands??) of great performers that have adorned the stage, including one from Joe from about 10 years ago.

Both shows were EXCELLENT!! Bogie & Carmine spot on perfect and anchoring the whole time;   Bogie on a great sounding 5 piece set of Yamaha drums, and Carmine using his "C" rig.  Rick, as always with all the right keys, and what can you say about Joe that you all already don't know?? Even with the rented equipment-great tone, and phenomenal playing all night long!

Met all in the band along with Warren and Roy; everyone was very nice and thoroughly professional.  Kudos to eveyone, including those at J&R!!!!

Sterling Ball (Ernie Ball Co.) along with his son Brian came to the sound check on the 11th with swag bags for the band and more guitars for joe (yes, you can never have enough guitars!!!!).  So joe traded out his Firebird for the triple PU MusicMan Albert Lee  "Big Poppa" model [Sterling Ball's personal guitar] (3 humbuckers w/ 5 pos switch and a series/parallel toggle, and tremolo bar-solid Rosewood neck that Joe really liked!) and then a MusicMan Reflex GoldTop (2 humbuckers w/ 5 way switch & series/parallel switch).
The new 12/6 string doublneck was developed for Joe so he could replace the acoustic 12string; it has 2 humbuckers on the 12 st and 3 humbuckers on the 6st.  During the Mountain Time solo Joe was on the Reflex and broke a string, changed down a string and just kept shredding and most people did not even notice until he had Dave Pate hand him a replacement guitar-he missed a whole 3 seconds-almost imperceivable by most of the audience. Throw Joe a curve ball & he hits it outta da park!!!!

Eargerly awaiting to hear about all of the special guests from the House Of Blues show!!!!
Heard that the jam between Joe & Steve Lukather on "Further On Up The Road" was a mind blowing event-hope that Guitar Center post the video very soon!