Re: BCC @ 9:30 Club in D.C. 6/19/11
I saw the show from right in front of Joe. It was great, except the mic stand was in just about every picture I took. Note to self, next time, go to the center. Joe faced Jason for a lot of his solos, so I would have seen him better from there. No worries, though, it was a great night all the way around.
I would like to note one thing about Joe's playing, and it is just an observation, and not a criticism. Two days before the DC show, he Tweeted and posted on FB about the posters over at The Gear Page taking cheap shots. I read most of the posts in the thread I believe he was talking about, the one about the ticket prices. One of the posts took a cheap shot at Joe for utilizing that one famous Eric Johnson lick. I think we all know the one I'm talking about. Its all over the Royal Albert Hall show, I think its there in Black Rock, its definitely in BCC 1 (One Last Soul in particular) it is on Dust Bowl, and its on BCC 2. So the guy said Joe only plays "that one lick (well its Eric Johnson's lick)" or something close to that. I don't know if this was the comment that got to Joe, or one of them, but it certainly caught my attention.
Fast forward to the concert. I went probably about half the concert without thinking about this guy's remark Joe seemed to play the One Last Soul solo pretty close to note-for-note from what he did in the studio, so I know that lick was there. But as I was watching the show, I noticed he was pulling out some older licks that I had not really heard him play since 2007 (Blues Deluxe) and 2005 (A New Day Yesterday.) That reminded me of the Eric Johnson lick, and so for the rest of the show, I paid attention, and I don't think I heard it. It made me wonder if Joe was purposefully avoiding it.
One thing about Joe playing that lick - He's always owned up to the fact that as of late, his live soloing has been heavily influenced by Eric Johnson. I saw one YouTube video where he said it himself. Its a great lick, Joe pulls it off exceptionally well, and honestly, everyone rips off everyone else, and they have been for a long, long time. I think Joe likes that lick a lot (or he wouldn't use it as much as he does) and his fans love when he plays it. If some guy (or girl) on The Gear Page wants to trash Joe for playing it, so what? They are probably just jealous that they can't play it half as fast, or half as well as Joe does.