Salt Lake City 4-22-12 (Page 2 of 3)

Wow what a great show!  This was my first time seeing Joe live and I took two friends with me for their first time as well.  We were all blown away by how good Joe was, and also how good the rest of the band is.  I have been a Bonamassa fan for about four years or so, and I have all of his material and several concert DVD's but seeing him live was a totally different experience.  I was very impressed with the dynamics of his playing and singing.  I am really looking forward to the next time Joe is in town either on his own or with BCC.

Man where to start...

Meet conorb from the board and that was way cool. I know you and your parents had to have a evening to remember... I sure did!

First Abravanel Hall is just amazing for sound, just AMAZING! They didn't build this place with a single flat surface.

Joe hit the stage right at 8pm with Iron Maiden just cranking as he made his way to the stage.
I knew from the first beats from Tal on Slow Train that my socks had just left my feet and the sonic blast that rolled to the tracks from Joe, Carnie, and Rick was just jaw  dropping. Last Kiss ....just perfection on the stage.

Oh did I mention "Boggie" yet... I was row 11 floor with my seat being the end of right side of the row. The stage curtain was open on the end near the side of the stage and Boggie looked to be having a great time watching the entire show from side stage.

Midnight Blues had the couple sitting next to me looking at each other with jaws dropped... Talked with them before the show and they said it was there first time  seeing Joe. The fella said they caught RAH on PBS TV and that was there 1st time hearing Joes music and when they heard about last nights show they knew it was a must see event. There were many many times we all looked at each other with the words; "WOW, AMAZING, PERFECTION... rolling off our lips as I know we weren't the only ones caught up in many such moments on this Sunday evening with Joe Bonamassa.

Sloe Gin is one of my favorite's and it had me eyes watering up, it was one of those moments you know will stick with you for ever!!! :bows:

About the "Sunday" show, Joe sure had the crowd in stitches when he finely greated us about 6 songs into the set, it went something like this.
JOE: " Salt Lake City on a Sunday evening, whats up with that" ...it was so dam funny as he went on to tell us that the Hotel he was staying at had knocked on his door to get his bag's to the curb as they were closing up on Sunday...  The crowd just roared with laughter as he was having fun with us. 

Steal Your Heart Away, Blues Deluxe more WOW's and welting up eyes
Django was just magical. About 2/3rd the way through Django Joe worked his way over to our side of the stage and through out the song there were typical shout outs of gratitude to Joe as he just worked that acoustic guitar like a demon. Then some guy in the upper bachony stage right above me says .... "Show Off"  Joe looks up over the top of his shades with a huge smile on his face and without skipping a beat he flips of the guy with his left hand and right back to the next notes.  OMG did the place just break out in laughter as did Joe. Then Joe pushed himself even further with a jaw dropping masterful display of fret work to close out Django.

Just a wonderful night in SLC was capped off with Driving Into The Daylight which is just killer and "Just Got Paid" was a barn burner.

THANK YOU Joe you sure wowed all of your SLC fans!!

Nice review JT! Sounds like the audio quality was far better in SLC than what we had here in Reno. Your sentiments and reviews of the individual songs mentioned pretty much mirrored my feelings, right down to the misty eyes.

Glad you enjoyed it.

Torqdog

I'll venture that the venue is as good as any on the whole tour.  It was so difficult to sit through this show - I would close my eyes and revel in the sounds that came from all sides - turned up to 11, and then open them to see the guy playing...  Way too personal to be shared with my new closest 2K plus friends.  My boots felt the beat - my terrible hearing had a great night - the backdrop was excellent - and what a band.  Rarely have I been able to see any star perform at the top of his/her chosen profession - but not this time - Joe who? was all that I got all week when discussing my weekend plans - but Joe Bonamassa will be shared with only my friends that "get it", and I'll buy another ticket  as soon as I can.

Did Joe play "Dazed and Confused"in SLC

Yes as part of the Just Got Paid/Dazed and Confused medley as the last song of the encore.

I may be a bit late to the party but I thought I would get in here while I could.

My wife and I drove the nearly 900 miles out to SLC from Western Oregon on Saturday arriving into SLC early Sunday afternoon.

My parents who had been living in Pocatello just recently moved to Sandpoint (Northern Idaho) so they had quite a trek down I-15 to get to SLC for the show.

My Mom has always liked British Blues based music but Dad is a neophyte to this kind of thing but since they'd both seen the RAH DVD and loved it I thought this would be a fun thing for everyone to do.

We arrived at the M&G about 4:30 and I was informed that we only had one set of tickets - not two - so I got pretty stressed pretty fast.  Thankfully I was able to pull up an email from the home office confirming our 4 tickets.  After talking with Clancy and the Clipboard Guy we were assured that our tickets would be at Will Call that evening before the show.

My wife and I had seen Joe back in December in Portland and it was really great seeing him again and introducing him to my parents. He was very nice and jovial when I'm sure he'd rather be getting ready for the show but signed items and posed for photos with everyone there.

Knowing that Joe is getting into watches and that his b-day is coming up I had a friend of mine make Joe a custom leather watch strap that would work for several of his watches (at least what I've seen in pictures) and I gave it to Joe at the M&G as a bday present.  I hope he didn't find it creepy, although he did seem genuinely excited about it.

After dinner we returned to will call where I was given - wait for it - two tickets.  I know.  So I pulled out the phone and showed them the email from Roy confirming our four tickets. 

Once we got that sorted out I passed what looked like a forum member sitting in row 11.  I asked if he was "JT."  Which he confirmed and I introduced myself.  It's always great to meet other forum fans in the flesh and share the show experience.

Given the ticket snafu we were in great seats - row 10 - and I must be honest here that I was nervous about my parents liking the show and the ticket issue had made my stress level rise, well, quite a bit actually.

Once the show started it was great.  Seeing Joe live, as has been said many times, is a new experience and even having seen him a few times before doesn't dampen my enthusiasm.  The interplay between Tal and Joe is phenomenal and the crowd just loved it.

Thankfully, so did my parents.  So - whew!  Dad especially was raving about the raw talent and musical ability and really liked the drumming talking of Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich and others.

As I was thinking about it my dad was born in 1940 so that makes him 15 in 1955.  Basically rock and roll is being invented daily but dad never really liked it.  So he missed Chuck Berry, Elvis, The Beatles, the everything.  But in the end he found Joe and that's probably enough.

Here's a picture of Joe with Mom and Dad:

http://vendettacycles.com/pics/misc/par … eb-001.jpg

And a picture of the Columbia River Gorge as we were driving back towards Portland on Monday night:

http://vendettacycles.com/pics/misc/gorge.jpg

conorb

Front Row Observation from my first JB Concert at Salt Lake City 4-22-12!

Hi fellow Members, I'm a new member and this is my first Post.  Sorry I’m a little late with my post, but here it goes:

My friend Brett and I made the road trip from Boise ID. We have only known about JB  for less than a year and have really enjoyed getting caught up on what he’s done over the past 12 years including Black Country Communion.  This was our first JB Concert!

The Abravenel Hall is beautiful venue that is home of the Utah Symphony. We were fortunate to obtain front row seats from StubHub for the price about two times the face value. We felt the splurge was justified since we had missed out on this Exceptional Talent for the past several years.  There’s something special about sitting in the front row at a concert. You feel somewhat like a VIP! Our seats were located about 10ft left of center across from Keyboard player, Rick Mellick. 

Before the show there were two High School / College age guys sitting a few seats to our left and I noticed one of them holding their ticket and it looked like it was signed by JB?  I asked him about it and he said it was signed by Joe at the Meet & Greet earlier that day.  How Cool!

I was delightfully surprised by the Iron Maiden song “Two Minutes to Midnight” cranking just prior to the band taking the stage!  I now have learned that this is routine for the band. Joe was sharply dressed in a nice dark black suite (no tie) with a nice pair of black dress shoes topped off with his classic JB Shades.

It was clear from the opening song, Slow Train, that the sound was loud and Powerful!  The sound from our front row seats was very good.  Joe’s Guitars sounded perfect for me.  I do remember a few moments during a some of the louder songs that I almost reached into my pocket for my ear plugs.  I never did use my ear plugs and I never had any ill effects with my hearing after concert or the next day.

It was mesmerizing when Joe would step away from the Mic and work is way over to our side of the stage, just a few feet away looking up at him as he played with such Amazing Precision and Feeling. I was in Complete Awe when he was performing this close to us.  Just Incredible!

While I was captivated during the entire show, The song “DustBowl” stood out for me  because they performed an amazing extended version that promptly garnered a Standing “O” when the song ended!  Woke Up Dreaming went Above and Beyond any other previous version I had seen!  I remember during a quiet part of “Woke Up dreaming” when Joe was standing right in front of us, I could hear Joe’s foot tapping to keep his timing!  I thought to myself, now that’s something you’ll never hear on a DVD!

I enjoyed the the time when Joe and Tal (the drummer) were trading off licks in fun and Joe played the beginning notes to Stairway To Heaven and Tal responded with his hands on the skins like Bongos (Like John Bonham)!  I have to give credit to Forum Member JT1960 who made the “Bonham” connection in his post because I didn’t make the connection at the time.  Thanks JT! 

I was excited to see from prior set list posts that the the band was performing, “A New Day Yesterday”,  My favorite BCC song.  I must say though, when they performed this song I missed Glen Hugh’s engaging vocals in the song.  Other than that, The song was great.

The first of the two Encore songs was “Driving Towards the Daylight” which is song that is  beginning to grow on me more and more!  The second encore song was the amazing “Just Got Paid”!  Joe put on some Goofy Green Glasses (You got to love his sense of humor) and encouraged the whole audience to Stand Up as he proceeded to belted it out with solo variations I had never seen or heard before!  It Was an Awesome Performance!

After the concert we hung out around the bus in hopes of getting him to sign a couple things for us.  I should mention that the weather in Salt Lake on this day was at or near record high temps (upper 80‘s) during the day).  At night it was cooler but still very comfortable T-shirt weather!

We waited around the bus about 30 minutes along with about 30 other fans.  Joe eventually came out and gracefully made his way through the line.  He looked a little tired but relaxed, like an athlete who had just competed in an event. 

He gladly signed my friends Pick Guard and commented on his Gibson T-Shirt.  I handed Joe my Royal Albert Hall DVD and he signed it with a Silver Sharpie and we shook hands. Sweet!  I noticed Joe was wearing special black gloves.  I suspect that they help protect his hands after a performance?  After all, those are some Very Special Hands!

My friend and I were so amped after the show and seeing Joe that we set out and found a Beer Pub a few blocks away open till Midnight and were able to have a couple cold ones and relish about our memorable evening. What a Great Time! 

Scott from Boise