If Joe Bonamassa reads this, or if you personally know Joe, please pass along my most heart felt, ears-ringing, throat-raw, hands hurting from clapping ... THANK YOU JOE and Carmine Rojas, Bogie Bowles, Rick Melick and the sweet angel, Sandi Thom. After years and years as a Bonamassa fan, never getting to see Joe for the craziest, stupidest reasons all of which would seem unacceptable to you Die Hard Joe Bonamassa fans, I finally got to see Joe Bonamassa at The Palace of Fine Arts last night. I had a pen and paper and was going to write down the set list... Ha ! after the first song I was in Bonamassa Bliss, no notes, no pictures, just singing along on the choruses, sitting there with my mind blown, watching him play the guitar and not believing all those guitar sounds were being made by one man, all the while I was watching him do it. 'If Nickels were Heartaches' made me cry, I know it's a Warren Hayne's song, but Joe owns it. 'Sloe Gin' made me cry again... I never cry during the sad songs anymore...and the keyboard/ guitar interplay intro was awesome. After and hour and a half with the full band, Joe was alone on stage with an acoustic guitar, I'm running out of adjectives, Mind Blowing, again, I'm watching him play and thinking no one can play that fast, that clean and with so much soul and truth coming through the strings. Jazzy riffs, East Indian Scales, Son House busking styles, Joe did it all, magnificently !! Skip ahead to the duet with Sandi Thom, after reading Joe's facebook updates and twitter tweets, I knew of her, but the 30 second samples on allmusic.com didn't impress me enough to buy her CD's , but live, last night, it was like she and Joe were of one voice, one soul, beautiful, amazing. I saw, felt, some kind of magic, chemistry from the 11th row... I'll be buying her CD's next time at Amoeba, and the finale, Joe get's on his Gibson flying V with what looks like Cadillac trim, demanding we stand up ! insisting we stand up !! and tearing into the final song of the night, God I hope someone posts a setlist so I can burn myself a 'copy' from my Joe CD's to play in my car, can't do it on 'Young Man Blues' though, right? that's not out yet, is it on the new CD 'Black Rock' ? and the extended solo's with the Hendrixian playing and, dare I say it, Joe and the band play Zeppelin better than Zeppelin, now I never saw Led Zep live, but I've had a copy of 'Song Remains the Same' for 30 years, I have Led Zed live DVD's and Joe 'Live in Person' and on 'Live From the Royal Albert Hall' , Joe and band play Zeppelin better than Zeppelin did, Joe didn't try to match Plant's vocals, and thats smart. even Robert Plant says he can't match his vocals from then...anyway, I've lost my train of thought... sitting here typing, listening to 'Live From NoWhere In Particular' and right, right, the last song of the night, I looked around the Palace of Fine Arts, such a refined establishment, and the crowd was going nuts, cheering, screaming, clapping, and the paint was blistered off the walls, and the roof was blown off the place, and there was total unbridalled Rock n Roll all over the floor... Last night was one of the most amazing, unforgettable concert experiences of my life. Thank you Joe Bonamassa.
