In India... (Page 2 of 2)

A review of the Festival Concert:

MUMBAI: Not too many people had heard of Joe Bonamassa when he walked up on stage to kick off the Johnnie Walker One Tree Music Festival this weekend in Mumbai. By the time he was through, the guitarist scored a huge number of fans, especially among the younger crowd, who were telling anyone who’d listen that nothing else could match up to what they had just heard.

In an interview with ET (Economic Times) a day before the gig, Bonamassa had spoken about why he’s unlikely to ever be invited to play on G3 — a tour of guitarists popularised by virtuoso Joe Satriani: “They never take Blues players out. They are afraid our six notes will beat their six million.” But in the course of his performance, Bonamassa proved he was adept at even the six million notes school of playing. His set was a tour de force of pummelling heavy blues rock with incendiary solos on electric and acoustic guitars flying thick and fast, amid occasional slow contemplative pieces.

While Bonamassa set himself up as a tough act to follow, the Robert Cray Band’s approach was different. Cray’s set didn’t win him fans enamoured by Bonamassa’s flashy aggressive playing, but he had vocal supporters in the audience who hollered requests and bellowed approval through his setlist. When Cray introduced a song as being about a relationship gone wrong, adding wryly, “It won’t be the last,” he was referring to a pet theme in his oeuvre. One that’s thankfully not been inspired by his life. “I’ve been happily married for 18 years,” he said in an earlier interview. The highlight of his set was ‘Twenty’ from his most recent album, a mournful dirge on the futility of the Gulf War.

For the full article:  http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ET_ … 775064.cms