Prague - a tale of two gigs (Page 1 of 2)

Hi Bluemac and welcome to the forum. I understand what you're saying. The early Joe days were like that. But we all knew he was going to be very big one day. That day is now and the show is of Rock Star quality. I'm going to suggest you get the DVD's from London. You will love the one's from the small venues. I know I will. And, keep going to cheer for the young unknowns. That's how we keep good music alive and who knows, you may find the next JB

It’s not that I didn’t enjoy the show Joe and my comments are not in any way intended as a criticism of the effort you and the band put in. My wife and I are big fans and we both have a huge admiration not just for your talent, but for the fact that you always give a 110% of whatever percentage you have and that you always try to deliver the very best show. The fact that you have taken the time to answer my comments shows how much you care about your fans’ enjoyment and I’m really grateful for that. You have a superb solo repertoire that ranges from acoustic through blues, blues rock to rock and in putting together a set I guess it’s not always easy to get the balance right to suit everybody. If the gig had been an outstanding success, with a great atmosphere, standing ovations, etc (you know what I mean – you’ve had many of those great nights), then I would be the odd one out here and my comments would look out of place. But this was the first time I’ve seen you when it really wasn’t like that and the problem wasn’t your playing, which was fantastic as ever, the problem appears to have been the balance of the set, which was probably too rock oriented for the majority of the fans at the gig. Where we were sitting the fans didn’t really get into it until Midnight Blues, and feedback from friends in the UK suggest it was pretty much the same there. I also now understand that the set was cut short due to time constraints, but I’m just a little confused as to why you would drop two such big fan favourites as Django and Mountain Time but keep in something like ‘Won’t get fooled again’, which the fans have no emotional attachment to and which demonstrates none of the very virtuoso guitar skills we came to see. I’m an unashamed blues/blues rock fan and you are the very best exponent of that craft I’ve ever had the privilege to see and so I naturally like to see more of that and less of the rock band stuff, which I think many other people can also offer. Maybe one option is to follow the Clapton example and play fewer venues, but play two nights at each, with a blues set one night and a rockier set on the other. That way everybody gets what they want and you get to flex your rock muscles as well! We will be there to see you in spring and will enjoy whatever you play, but obviously we’ll enjoy it more if it’s more bluesy! It was never my intention to come across as negative or critical in any way, I just wanted to give some honest feedback. I hope you'll accept that all of the above comments were meant to be constructive.

Artists love criticism and career advice from fans.  Especially first time posters!   Interesting to hear Joe did a rock based set list.  Please reconstruct the set list and post here. I'd love to see it as I have not experienced a JB rock show so far.

Here´s the setlist of the Vienna-Gig.
It´s the same, but in Prague he didn´t play Django/Mountain Time (reasons in the other Prague-topic).

Acoustic:
Palm Treues Helicopters and Gasoline
Seagull
Jelly Roll
Athens to Athens
Woke Up Dreaming

Electric:
Dust Bowl
Story of a Quarryman
Who's Been Talking?
Someday After a While
Dislocated Boy
Driving Towards the Daylight
Slow Train
Midnight Blues
Look Over Yonders Wall
Song of Yesterday
Won't Get Fooled Again
Django / Mountain Time

Encore:
Sloe Gin
The Ballad of John Henry

A lot of Bluessongs, but he played it heavy...
A review you can find in the Vienna-topic...

I can see that I’ve caused some confusion here with talk of ‘bluesy’ and ‘rocky’. Let me see if I can clarify. Ignoring the acoustic songs (which are always fantastic), I believe you can categorise Joe’s electric songs into three groups:

1. Solo/lead bluesy (Sloe Gin, Midnight Blues, The Great Flood, So Many Roads, etc.)
2. Solo/lead rocky (Just Got Paid, Young Man Blues, etc.)
3. Full band/loud rocky (John Henry, Slow Train, etc.)

With the solo songs, the focus is on Joe and his guitar only, the band tends to be quieter than Joe, so you can hear every note he plays and every word he sings and I prefer this stuff (it’s just my personal preference).

With the full band/rocky stuff, the band tends to play at the same volume as Joe, which creates a kind of ‘wall of sound’ effect as the other instruments compete with the guitar and vocals, which makes it harder to distinguish what Joe is playing and harder to pick out the vocals (even in a venue like Prague, which has superb acoustics). Now it’s also possible to play otherwise bluesy songs in full band/rocky style, which is basically what happened in Prague with most of the songs (as the Wolf says: ‘plenty of blues songs but he played it heavy’). I don’t mind the odd song like this, but they’re not my absolute favourites because I prefer to hear what Joe is playing and singing.

When I saw Joe in Spring, the ratio of songs in the set was: solo: 9, full band/rocky: 3. This set went down a storm, there was a great atmosphere and a real buzz about the place and lots of happy fans.

In Prague the ratio was: solo: 2, full band/rocky: 11. Practically the complete opposite and it really didn’t go down a storm at all. It wasn’t the sound, which was excellent, it wasn’t Joe’s playing, which was fantastic as ever, it appears that the balance of the set was not what people were hoping for (this isn’t just my opinion, but also that of others who’ve been to the autumn gigs as well).

I’m not trying to be critical, I’m just giving some feedback. I would personally rather listen to Joe play what I think of as the great solo bluesy songs (So Many Roads, etc.) than practically a full set of full band/rocky songs. I’d rather listen to him play the haunting solo on The Great Flood than watch him strum chords on Won’t Get Fooled Again. It’s just my personal preference and everybody is entitled to disagree with me. I may be wrong, but my gut feeling from the feedback I’ve had from others is that I’m really not alone in this. I hope this clarifies what I’ve been saying and nobody takes any offence…

Me too! Great idea by Joe and SMR would get my vote every time.
Rick

JB has so many song he plays/played!
There are a lot of different songs on the "Tour de Force"-Dvd´s, but the one I´m waiting for is not on it (One of these days)...
Doesn´t matter - I´ll defenitely buy...and enjoy...

But maybe a shot of this song on Bonamassa Tv?

I agree with you that we’re all different, which is why I’ve tried to stress that I’m not trying to speak for everybody. Indeed, one reviewer in another thread (I suspect he’s a BCC fan) really seemed to like what he described as the ‘pounding heavy rock’ and ‘mayhem’, but if I'm honest that didn’t seem to be the case for the majority of the audience where we were. 

I think your point about ‘quality’ is well made, but my feeling is that when you create a ‘wall of sound’ by playing songs with a full band/loud/rock arrangement, you risk losing some of that quality because it’s not easy to pick out the vocals or the subtleties of Joe’s playing. Driving Towards the Daylight is a good example: when Joe played it acoustically in spring, it made a real emotional connection with the audience, but this time around it was difficult to make that emotional connection, because it was hard to make out the vocals and the subtleties of the music were drowned out in a sea of sound. If you want to make a top quality song sound ordinary, then play it loud...

I’m a big fan of pretty much everything Joe does, especially when I’m listening in my car, for example, but when I see him live – a fanstastic opportunity to see/hear one of the truly great musicians of our times – then of course I prefer to be able to really hear what he’s singing and playing and it is the quieter, more bluesy arrangements that allow this to happen. When he's playing live, these are the songs, I believe, that really showcase his superb talents (again this is just my personal opinion).  Midnight Blues got the best reception in Prague probably because it was the first song that gave the audience a chance to really appreciate Joe’s skills after over an hour of ‘wall of sound’ loud songs that didn't really showcase Joe's talents to anything like the same extent.

Joe’s poll on facebook looks like a straight shootout between Blues Deluxe and So Many Roads, with the purer, quieter Blues Deluxe probably getting the most votes. Spanish Boots, which would be more of a full band/loud/rocky number when played live, got hardly any votes at all. The results suggest that people still really want to hear Joe up there playing songs where you can hear the vocals and you can listen in awe to his amazing solo guitar playing and all the emotion that he can wring from his guitar... These are the songs that make a real emotional connection with the audience and it is making an emotional connection that makes any art form into something truly memorable. Unlike many artists, Joe is blessed with many songs in his repertoire that are capable of making this emotional connection, and I believe that the reason this particular set didn’t get a really enthusiastic reception is that he simply didn’t play enough of them, and the songs that he did play were probably too loud to really do them justice.

At the end of the day this is why I said in my original post that I hope the set in spring will be very different - the same amazing talent, but hopefully showcased in a way that will better allow us to really appreciate that talent and which will be something truly memorable.