The Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast

Episode 023 - Joe Bonamassa Concert Review

• ALEX GADD • Season 1 • Episode 23

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This week, I’m reviewing the Joe Bonamassa concert at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY on the August 24th, 2024.  Smokin’ Joe is an artist I’ve been waiting to see since the mid-90’s, and it was worth the wait. Wait – you don’t know who Joe Bonamassa is? If that’s the case, you'll learn about his remarkable rise, the bands that shaped him, and the unparalleled guitar skills that make him one of today’s most respected blues musicians – all without any mainstream recognition. And if you do know who Joe Bonamassa is, then you know just how great a player he is.
 
 In this episode, I'll share a rundown of the show and some clips to give you a taste of just how good he and his 10-piece bands sounded. Whether you're a longtime admirer or new to his music, this episode offers an engaging look at Joe Bonamassa's journey and his ongoing mission to keep the blues alive. All this week on the Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast!

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Alex Gadd:

Welcome to the Rock and Roll Show podcast. I'm your host, lex Gad, and this week I've got another concert review for you. I went to see modern-day blues master Joe Bonamassa at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, new York, this past weekend. He's a performer I've been waiting to see for years now, so it was a big check off my wish list. I hope you'll join me for my Joe Bonamassa concert review this week on the Rock and Roll Show podcast Coming up right now.

Alex Gadd:

Joe Bonamassa is not a household name. Yet to music fans, and particularly to fans of the blues. He's one of the preeminent guitarists playing out today. He doesn't release singles or get any top 40 radio airplay. In fact, he's not even signed to a major record label at all. Instead, he releases albums through his own company, J an d R Adventures, which serves not only as his record label but also as his music management and promotion company. Basically, Joe's figured out how to fly under the radar with the general public, making the music he wants to make, touring when, where and how he wants, and doing his part to help keep the blues alive. That's not too bad for a self-described chubby white kid from Utica, new York.

Alex Gadd:

Now, I first got clued into Joe in 1994 when I stumbled across an album by a new band called Bloodline. The name came from the fact that it was made up of the sons of multiple music icons Bassist Barry Oakley Jr was the son of Allman Brothers bassist Barry Oakley, guitarist Waylon Krieger was the son of Doors guitarist Robbie Krieger and drummer Aaron Davis was the son of jazz legend Miles Davis. The band originally also had Aaron Hagar, the son of the Red Rocker Sammy Hagar, as the lead singer, but they parted ways due to creative differences before that first record was recorded, to creative differences before that first record was recorded. The album was a straight-ahead bluesy rock album which in 1994 was definitely not what was happening in rock music. Grunge was happening, hard rock was happening, but not bluesy 70s kind of rock like Bloodline. But all the songs were great on this record and they had incredible solos. Many of them played at a dizzying pace on this record and they had incredible solos. Many of them played at a dizzying pace.

Alex Gadd:

I loved the album right away and tried to find out more about them. I read the liner notes and found out they had a keyboard player named Lou, who didn't seem to be the son of any famous musician, and their lead guitarist was a guy named Smoke and Joe Bonamassa. Now, that sounded like an old blues guy, and they had brought in an unknown blues guitarist to be their lead guitarist. Now, remember, the World Wide Web had just started that year, search engines were very, very rudimentary. Even more, there wasn't a ton of information on the web yet because, hey, it was brand new and businesses, including record labels, hadn't figured out how to use the web to their advantage. Yet there was no YouTube, no Spotify, no, to use the web to their advantage. Yet there was no YouTube, no Spotify, no iTunes Music Store, nothing like that yet. So finding out more about this band was challenging. After reading the few articles I could find, I learned that Smoke and Joe wasn't even 18 yet, while the other guys in the band were in their early 20s. They had played with many of the blues greats, starting as young as 11 years old. He even opened dates for BB King at the age of 12. So began my fascination with Joe Bonamassa, while Bloodline was a short-lived thing, despite a great set of songs. Now take a listen to the opening track on their album. Right from the start you can hear Joe wailing. They didn't make it past their debut album.

Alex Gadd:

Joe then went on to form his own band and released his debut album in the year 2000. The first album was pretty rockin' but based on the blues very reminiscent of the Stevie Ray Vaughan sound. Joe's singing voice was soulful and bluesy a perfect match for his playing Now. Since then he's gone on to release 16 solo records, three albums with the vocalist, beth Hart, 20 live albums, as well as three albums with his side project, rock Candy Funk Party, and another five albums with his hard rock band Black Country Communion, which is a collaboration with Glenn Hughes of the Latter Day Deep Purple lineups, derek Sherinian, who had played with both Alice Cooper and then Dream Theater, and Jason Bonham, son of Zeppelin drummer John and member of, at different times in his career, the band Steel Dragon. You know what I'm talking about His own band. And Jason Bonham is currently also in Sammy Hagar's band, the Circle. So for Joe Bonham that's 27 studio albums in all since the year 2000, plus the 20 live albums. And he tours constantly. And if that wasn't enough, he's one of the leading guitar collectors in the world. He has a Welcome to Nerdsville video that's produced by Reverb. You can find that on YouTube and in that video he shares some of his incredible collection of vintage guitars and amps.

Alex Gadd:

Now I've seen many of the great guitar heroes that have been alive in my lifetime. I miss Jimi Hendrix. He died when I was two so I never got to see him. I never got to see Zappa, but Joe Bonamassa is really at the top of my must-see list of players that I hadn't seen. So when he announced two nights at the wonderful Capitol Theater in Portchester, new York, I circled the dates on my calendar and made it happen. I checked and found out he had no opening act and he went on promptly at eight. So I got to my seat and at five after eight he came out with his 10-piece band, jumped right into an upbeat song from his latest album, blues.

Speaker 2:

Deluxe Volume 2, called Hope you Realize.

Alex Gadd:

It. So the band included second guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, three horn players and three backup singers. The first thing that hit me, though, was it was just too loud, and I love it loud, but this was a level of volume that was overwhelming, muddying all of the music and vocals together in a way that was very hard to really enjoy the music fully, although you did get Joe's vocals and his guitar clear. It was as though they had the front of the house sound set for Radio City Music Hall instead of the cab and Radio City's three times larger, but aside from that, the band did sound great. They went through three covers after the opening song, songs by BB King, bobby Blue, bland and Guitar Slim, before they slowed it down for Joe's own song, self-inflicted Wounds, which was excellent and soulful. Take a listen, oh, trust in me.

Speaker 2:

I am a villain. Oh, trust in me. I am a believer, oh, and mercy on my self and people. Oh, and was in my mind Silver-plated moon.

Alex Gadd:

Now that was five songs in and I realize he hadn't said hello to the audience or addressed us in any way yet. He went on with three more covers, including great versions of Jeff Beck's Blues Deluxe, from which he got his album's name and Am People's. I Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody's Home Tonight. That song went over great and featured the backup singers prominently. Check out the ending of the song and the backup singers featured there. After that, we're eight songs and more than an hour into a show, and only then did he welcome us all to the historic Capitol Theater.

Alex Gadd:

Now, joe's an extremely personal guy. From everything I've seen online from him, he's done tons of interviews, internet videos and guitar lessons online. He's smart, charming, folksy kind of guy you'd want to have a beer with. He explained that they were recording a live album over the two nights of their shows at the Cap and that would be his 21st if you you're counting and he told us that someone had yelled out something stupid the night before, encouraging us not to do the same. He then went on to talk some more and went on with the show. Now that meant only four more songs, including a killer version of leon russell's hummingbird to wrap up the main set. It was really excellent. He then came out for a two-song encore which included a really great cover of Bobby Parker's. It's Hard but it's Fair. That's here I swear, I swear.

Speaker 2:

share it anywhere. It's a little tear. It's hard to find someone when they don't love you. And somebody quick. What am I to do? Play the blues, Play the blues, Play the blues, Play the blues.

Alex Gadd:

And a slowed down almost gospel take on his own rocking song.

Speaker 2:

Mountain Time to end the show. Take a listen. I'm coming flying, I'm under the sun, I'm coming flying. Take me somewhere. Take me somewhere Close to the edge. Close to the edge. Close me to the. Close me to the world. Close me to the world. Close me to the world. Close me to the world.

Alex Gadd:

Close me to the world, close me to the world. With that the band took their bows and they were done. 14 songs in all, about 2 hours and 10 minutes. That meant more than 9 minutes per song, all of which included multiple solos both by Joe and by other band members. Now it is important to note that among his band was his longtime keyboard player, reese Winans, who's in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Stevie Ray Vaughan's backing band Double Trouble, who's in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Stevie Ray Vaughan's backing band Double Trouble. And he was a monster on keys Just great.

Alex Gadd:

So here are my takeaways. One, joe Bonamassa is a monster guitarist and his soloing, while extensive, never got to the point of overindulgence. It's what a guitar hero is supposed to do. Two, he had a really good band and I hope they're playing with him the next time I see him. He made sure the audience appreciated every one of his 10 band members. He was very generous with them, as I would expect. Point three is that nine of his 14 songs were covers, and he chose them really well.

Alex Gadd:

The setlist flowed nicely. He's out there keeping the blues alive, so paying homage to the masters, including his own first patron, bb King, is the honorable thing to do per song for two or three additional originals throughout the set. But maybe that's just me. Number four it was undeniably too loud and that took away from the ability to hear all the elements of his band's performance. When they all played together at full energy, the music was too much, the separation of the various elements got lost and, again, I love loud music, so I'm not just being a cranky old guy here Speaking of which, the crowd at the Cap skewed incredibly old. I was one of the younger people there and that's saying something. I'd like to see more young people get to hear Smoke and Joe and his band, because their music is uplifting and dynamic Everything I want from a concert. The Cap itself was jammed full. I have to give credit where credit is due, and it's such a great place to see a live show. We were all lucky to be there that night.

Alex Gadd:

Number six as I mentioned, joe is a voracious guitar and amplifier collector and even from the clips I shared, you can see he was playing a small set of vintage guitars from his collection of more than 500 vintage guitars, made up mostly of 1950s Gibsons and Fenders. It was amazing to see him getting the different sounds out of those different guitars for each of those songs. Again, check out the Welcome to Nerdsville episodes on YouTube. He also just did a great interview with Kenny Aronoff, the drummer from John Mellencamp's band, and others on Aronoff's podcast, the Kenny Aronoff Sessions, he walks through some of his incredible collection of guitars and amps. You'll also get to see how down-to-earth he is. Now I'm a huge fan, so I'm biased. Go check it out for yourself. Finally, I can't wait to see Joe again on another tour with a different set list, whatever. He's so good and I hope you get to check him out when he comes to your town. Now he's in Albany, new York and Barnstable on the Cape, and then wrapping up the weekend in New Hampshire at the end of August before heading out West in November. He's also playing at the Beacon Theater in New York City on my birthday next year, so maybe I'll see you there.

Alex Gadd:

Well, that's it for this week's episode. Thank you for joining us. We'll be back next Tuesday and, if you like what you heard today, we'd appreciate it if you would subscribe or follow to make sure you get notified about every episode, and please tell your friends. Additionally, a reminder we release a playlist for every new episode. Look for the Rock-N-R oll Show Podcast Playlist on Spotify every week, this week featuring the songs from Joe's set list on Saturday night. So check that out, and we want to know what you think, so please leave us a comment. We'll try to respond to every one of them. The Rock-N-R oll Show Podcast is a World Highway Media production. I'm your host, Alex Gadd, and until next time, remember that life is short, so get those concert tickets.