Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Review

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Concert review: Joe Bonamassa tears it up at the Benedum
March 3, 2017 10:37 AM

By Scott Mervis / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Joe Bonamassa only spoke to the crowd once Thursday night — like he really needs to talk — saying that he remembers playing Moondog’s many moons ago.

“We played 14 sets a night for $15, good money back in those days,” he joked. Guitarists still pass through the Blawnox club every week and less than 1 percent of them ever make it to where he is, selling millions of records and playing two-night stands in the Cultural District.

Bonamassa is a savvy marketer, no doubt, and it doesn’t hurt that he looks like he stepped out of “Men in Black,” but he's also one of the greatest living guitar players, especially in his field of blues-rock where so many have passed on or slowed down.

If radio still paid attention to people like him, the first two songs he played Thursday night, both from his latest album “Blues of Desperation,” would've been in heavy rotation. “This Train” and “Mountain Climbing” were a pair of bare-knuckled blues-rockers that evoked not only Stevie Ray Vaughan (RIP) but bands like Mountain and Led Zeppelin. The title track, which came third, had echoes of Bad Company, the Stones and “Sweet Emotion.”

But due to the indifference of radio, Bonamassa is robbed of having a signature song, and doesn’t have a signature sound, per se. You don't hear his guitar tone and say, “Oh that's Joe Bonamassa.” But, wow, can the man play.

He did 14 songs, give or take, and stepped up with a knock-down, drag-out killer solo, sometimes two or three, on every single one. If there had been beer and bourbon flowing in there, they would've ripped the place up. (Although, granted, his crowd is on the older side now.)

There were the full-blast, hard-driving solos on those songs, and “Sky is Crying”- style soaring ones on slow burners like “No Good Place for the Lonely” and “How Deep the River Runs.”

And then there were a few more experimental ones like on “Love Ain't a Love Song,” on which he flipped the tone switch all the way down on his Strat and took his time just tinkering with strings (to total silence in the crowd) like he was goofing around at home before ambushing us with a scorching return to the riff. His solo on the Texas roadhouse rocker “I Gave Up Everything for You, 'Cept the Blues” ended up somewhere between Dick Dale and Eddie Van Halen.

Behind him was an absolute dream band, with Reese Wynans (of SRV’s Double Trouble) on keys, the legendary Anton Fig (of the Letterman band and much, much more) on drums, veteran bassist Michael Rhodes, trumpeter Lee Thornburg, saxophonist Paulie Cerra and two soulful backup singers from Australia in Jade MacRae and Juanita Tippins.

He joked about a fan saying no one gives a [expletive] if HE sings when those ladies are around — and they could certainly carry their own set somewhere — but Bonamassa, while not having quite the grit of SRV or some of the Moondog’s guys, is no slouch as a blues/soul singer.

Along with making up a seamless ensemble, the players got their chances to shine, particularly Fig doing an intricate-to-thunderous solo coming out of Albert King’s “Angel of Mercy” and Thornburg muting the horn for a jazzy, noir turn on “Dust Bowl.”

Recent sets have Bonamassa playing Led Zeppelin's “Boogie with Stu” early on. He ditched that one, but late in the set, after a pummeling “Going Down,” he got the Led out on the show-stopping “How Many More Times,” turning it into an epic with the quietest little solo building into the most monstrous riff of the night.

At that point, with his mauve shirt drenched a dark purple, he let the ladies soar, gospel-style, on final “Hummingbird,” which served as a tribute to both Leon Russell, who wrote it, and Joe’s mentor B.B. King, who made it one of his staples.

He left the stage saying “Seeing you tomorrow night,” and no doubt some fans will return Friday for set that will have some new twists.

The 39-year-old Bonamassa may have been born too late to become a radio superstar, but he was born at the right time to keep this blues-rock tradition going.

Those ads on the back of buses that say “The Guitar Event of the Year,” they aren’t far off.

Scott Mervis: smervis@post-gazette.com; 412-263-2576.

Joe Bonamassa Set List

This Train

Mountain Climbing

Blues of Desperation

No Good Place for the Lonely

How Deep This River Runs

Little Girl

Never Make Your Move Too Soon

Angel of Mercy

Love Ain't a Love Song

Dust Bowl

I Gave Up Everything for You, 'Cept the Blues

Going Down

How Many More Times

Encore:

Hummingbird