[ Closed ] waterfront blues fest (Page 3 of 3)

I wanted to post up some other thoughts from this show too that still stick with me...Joe often comes accross as a big ol' goofball kid in interviews with a very "aw shucks.." attitude about things which is pretty refreshing given the insane amount of talent lurking within.  But man, when that guy took the stage and stepped up to the mic it was something else.  Standing one person back from the stage I had a clear shot of everything going on, including seeing the look on his face.  He was wearing not so dark glasses and it was easy to see the just the intense look in his eye's.  As fit as he is looking now and with the way he was basically staring down the crowd, the boy had the ATTITUDE! I was watching him and just thinking F@#! YEAH, this guy is OWNING this crowd and he knows it.   The vibe was pretty consuming and felt by most people that close to the stage.  Again - there were some heavy hitters in the music World standing stage right who were equally as blown out.  I heard a few people mumbling about how they were just going to quit playing after seeing that...it had the opposite effect on me as I couldn't wait to get home and play.  Can't wait for his next run through the Northwest.

There's been some cooling off time now since the festival. I'm sitting here with my G&L Legacy propped on my knee as I type, got my POD XT from LINE6 plugged into my Gorilla 30 watt amp with the 6" speaker. It's practice time y'all, I was just checking my email before getting to it when I noticed these new posts. I can either keep typing or try my to get on with my sad imitation of Joe Bonamassa. But you see, it ain't gonna be Joe Bonamassa. You wanna know why? As hard as Joe threw down at the Waterfront Blues Festival this year, and hear ya when you say the bonafide heavy weights was shaking their heads, because I saw it, I heard from the bonafide Portland heavy weights, they was all impressed with the "athleticism", just like I told y'all they would be, and just like I told y'all they would be, to a person I talked to, the said his blues was weak. One dude told me he felt Joe had regressed. That from the time Joe had done a show at the Roseland Theater after he'd done the Blues In The Schools event with me, that Joe had drifted hard from the Blues and was way off into Rock-n-Roll. This was just as I had predicted would be the case for the Portland Blues Police types. I knew it would happen, because I'm on the Force. Your not allowed on the board of directors of the Cascade Blues Association if you don't show at least some tendency toward Blues bigotry. I got it in spades, but at least I can admit it. Lot's of the other Blues Police types here in Portland don't even know they're wearing a uniform.

Thing is, this was all I was trying to say to y'all when I said them things about Joe right after his set at the Festival, but I guess I just had too much ego in my words for folks to be able to hear them.

Anyway, being the egomaniac Blues Police **** I am, I gotta pipe in here and point out, for every "heavy hitter" that thought Joe was the bomb, at least with the heavy hitters in the Portland Blues scene I hang with, there was two or three heavy hitters who thought he bombed. Playing fast, and covering Led Zeppelin, as a matter of fact, especially at the Waterfront Blues Festival, to us who go to festival like the Muslims go to Mecca, is sacrilege. Here's the bottom line: y'all can try an argue with me all you want about whether or not this or that is wrong or right, but none of that is going to change the fact that this is the myself and the rest of use way down in the alley Blues type here in Portland FEEL. It's our LIVED-EXPERIENCE of Blues in puddle town that makes us this way. It's what makes the Waterfront Blues Festival the Blues Mecca Event that it is.

It's what colors music in PDX Blue.

Well that's fine and dandy, and I have no doubt you're buddies with that little harmonica playing dude who accosted my friend for having the gall to play a Dylan tune at the Wednesday Duff's jam ( Who by the way played and toured non stop with WAR for 5 years, produced and played on Carlos Santana's "Shaman" album....J.B. has the TOUCH) But talk about a tired, worn out medium????  With the exception of Suburban Slim - which is the entire reason to go down there, I've never encountered a bigger group of armchair quarterbacks.  You commented that you were bummed out because Joe wasn't, well, you...I checked out your tunes and yeah, neither one of you will ever be the other.   

You self described Blues Biggots need to get over yourselves.  It's freaking music.  It's there for the interpretation.   One mans blues is another mans heaven.  I've actually physically been to the Marianas trench and surrounding areas - and I happen to like it.  Last I checked Joe has an album that actually hit #1 on the Billboard charts.   That would indicate that people are digging it.   

To address your comment that Joe's "blues were weak...." I'll only say that  having a pretty good idea of who the limited number people in this town that would actually make that comment are, and having listened to their own intepretation, I'll take Joe's weak version any day of the week.   You and your Blues Biggot weanies can wrap yourself up in the comfort blanket of guys who play the same tired three note blues licks over and over and over and over and....be perfectly happy.  I support that.   For me? That's regression.  I watched one set of music from one artist over the entire 3 day festival.  That set was from Joe Bonamassa. Done deal.  Case closed.  Game over.

Just a quick illistration of Cathy's point.

I got my Blues via Fleetwood Mac, Cream, Led Zepplen, Ten Years After, you get the idea. From there I worked back to BB, Freddie, Willie, Robert, and so on.

Then there was Stevie, who took me too Albert King and Collins.

Now there is The Black Keys, Back Door Slam, North Mississippi Alstars and so on. Taking their interpratation of the blues to a younger generation.

The important thing about Joe is he is bringing guys like me back to the blues and reaching the younger generation too.

It would take every blues purists in the country all convening on The Waterfront at the same time to fill the grounds. The reason that festival or any festival survives is the casual blues based music fan. Or the music fan in general that doesn't have a preconceived notion of what the blues is. If the blues relied on the purists to survive it would only be on display at the Smithsonian.