Topic: Ipswich Review 13th October 2010
So, here we are 5.30pm in a car park outside the Regent Theatre in Ipswich patiently waiting for the car park ticket machine to click over to 6.00pm so that we can park for the evening at £2.00.
6.00pm comes and we pay for the car park and go into Ipswich town centre to find some food before the evenings entertainment begins, fully feed and watered we head back to the theatre and join the queue to get in, it's now 7.00pm, loads of fans waiting outside in the drizzle, still surprises me the age range waiting to go in from what looked like about 8 years old to 80, still the vast majority somewhere between 35 and 50, I am of course at the upper end of the mid range scale!!!
Got in and sat down in my seat Row C seat number 14, couldn't believe how close I was to the stage, Joe would have been further away from me if he was playing on the other side of my front room, I kid you not, about 8-10 feet from his mic stand, this is going to be good me thinks, and was I dissapointed? Naaaaaaaaaaaa!
Just before the event kicked off I got a text from Wooders saying that "you're in for a treat and he wanted to hear all about it in the morning" well hear goes!!
Lights go down, joe walks on stage left and straight into Cradle rock, the sound form the very first note was spot on, lights looked superb, much better than Hammersmith earlier this year and as Joe came to the mic at the front of the satge, I could see what volume he had his Les Paul on, literally I could see the pots he was that close, the boys came in with such a powerful sound and soooooo clear and clean, no extra clicks or pops, PA was sensational, as the first track finished, straight in to and I mean straight into possibly the best version of "So Many Roads" I have heard, Mr B's vocals have come on leaps and bounds over the last few years, but he was sounding I believe at his best tonight. Searing guitar solo and at last I could hear Rick right from the start, good mix and overall the fullness of the band was incredible, so tight as well, I guess that comes from being "Always on the Road"
Next comes the first "Black Rock" Track "When the fire hits the sea" followed by "So it's like that" and "If heartaches where nickels" Slow, sooo bluesey and the vocal was out of this world, pure Joe at his best, rich, full and crammed with feeling.
Joe jumps up to the drum riser and starts the new "Call and response" drum beat for "Slow Train" on the first drum thud, only one person shouts "Hey" that was me, joe turns round and gives a thumbs up, message recieved, next drum beat the whole theatre responds with "Hey", now we're cooking with gas!! 
"Steal your heart away" next followed by a simply stunning "Sloe Gin" Joe did about a 2 minute master class intro to Sloe Gin getting his guitar to "Talk, Cry and Scream" astounding! the solo itself was vintage JB, mind blowing.
Up to this point the boys had played straight with hardly a breath between numbers apart from a quick thankyou at the end of each song, Joe now comes to the front and does a formal "hello" to us. "up untill about 24 hours ago I thought Ipswich was a type of beer", he said "Who would have heard of us in Ipswich?" crowd responds with loud cheer. Joe continues with " I got a phone call from a friend of mine recently, who told me that this next track had been voted number 12 out of the top 50 riffs in the last decade" "Number 12, NUMBER 12, F*****'s, LAUGHS, as did the whole of the Regent Theatre, into BOJH, again just sensational.
"Happier Times" follows, a real soulful number packed with feeling. "Never make your move too soon" next followed by an inspired version of "Great Flood", all throughout the show the track selection has been spot on, one fast, one slow , and then something mid paced, a greal balance all the way through, "Young Man Blues follows and then in to what I think was the best of the night, Joe's solo acoustic of "Woke Up Dreaming" this is a track that I have mixed feeling for, firstly I think I must try harder to get my own guitar playing up to speed and then by the time he gets half way through it I think to myself, "Whats the point, I'm never going to get anywhere near that sort of skill level, to be fair at 50 years old Imay have left it a bit late to be a guitar hero myself, it was blindingly, fanatastic.
"Django" led into "Mountain Time" another of my favorites, played with taste, feeling and passion. Set finished and off they went, for about 2 minutes of course, Joe walks back on to centre stage and starts off with the unmistakable "Bird on a Wire" intro, I think I saw Sandi in the wings and thought she might come on to duet with him, but either I was mistaken or it wasn't in the overall plan for the evening, now came the other biggest highlight of the evening for me, Flying V" on, Theramin primed, Volume up, it could only be Just Got Paid and what a treat, played tight, loud and very very proud, about 9 minutes of ZZtop and Led Zepp, what a way to finish the evening, for all those who haven't seen Joe and the band yet, please do yourself a favour and get to a JB show, you will not regret it I promise you.
So gig over, I stand to go home and see Dave (Joe's guitat tech) unplugging the Marshalls etc and thought I'd ask if I could have Joe's set list, "no problem" he said and untapped Joe's set list from the stage floor and hands it over to me, what a great memento I thought!, leaving the theatre we had parked behind the Regent in a small public car park and as we walked around the back of the theatre the rear security gates opened and let out a car or two, well I thought, not to let an opportunity slip by I walked through the gates before they closed and found myself at the back of the stage where the guys were breaking down the kit and loading to go off to Bristol for tonights show. One of the guys asked me if I was waiting for an autograph and I said that Dave had given me Joe's set list and was there any chance of Joe and the boys signing it for me, to cut a long story short, 20 minutes later there we were at the back of the Regent theatre with Joe, Carmine, Rick and Bogie getting the set list signed and having photo's taken with all of them, the perfect end to a perfect night.
Well there you go, probably not the best worded review in the world but hopefully if it gives you a feel of what the evening was like it was MAGIC!!!! 
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