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Rating: I recently discovered Joe Bonamassa, thanks to the usual word-of-mouth with my music-dependent friends. After listening to his last two albums, "Hard to Cry" and "You and Me", it confirmed all the good things I had been told about this guitarist who places himself on the edge between rock and blues, and was even elected bluesman of the year.
Thanks again to word-of-mouth, I found out he was playing at the Stazione Birra on the outskirts of Rome, and I couldn't miss the appointment.
We departed from Latina in such bad weather that it suggested to everyone to stay home watching The Matrix, but we arrived just in time to witness one of the best concerts I've seen in recent years at a club level.
The turnout at the venue is good, at least 5-600 people, and the screen is showing a concert that another sacred monster like Tony Levin held at the same venue a short time ago.
Around 10:30 PM, after not that long a wait, our group takes the stage: Joe Bonamassa tonight is accompanied by bass and drums to form a power trio.
Rather than the usual list of songs performed, I want to focus attention on the concert.
Everything is perfect: the acoustics, which is quite an achievement around here, is amazing; the instruments are clearly distinguishable, and the sound of Joe’s Les Paul seems almost recorded.
The songs the three propose are rock blues rooted in the Seventies with rhythmic parts often reminiscent of the Cream and early Led Zeppelin albums where the rock-blues combination was very strong. Fittingly, towards the end of the concert, during the solo of one of his pieces, Joe slips into none other than the riff of "Dazed And Confused", one of the songs that made the Led Zeppelin famous, creating a real ovation among the audience, most of whom are veterans of that legendary decade.
The concert continues without losing momentum, hard-hitting pieces are contrasted with classic blues riffs where improvisation reigns supreme: and Joe Bonamassa amazes, moves, entertains. Because he has a truly enviable technique, he doesn't just play pentatonics in all their variations, he can do much more, he can also sing quite decently, with fairly high vocal lines laced with blues; most importantly, he knows how to engage the audience.
Many guitarists show you how good they are at playing, and after half an hour of gig, you overdose on notes... yet he has taken care of everything: every song has the wow factor, which can be a particular insert inside the solo, or suddenly lowering the dynamics enough to require total silence in the room to hear a solo played lightly touching the strings with the pick.
He often invites people present to follow along in the choruses; even if his American is sometimes incomprehensible, we all try to at least emulate the vocal line.
Not only that, in the sung parts, he often prefers to leave the guitar and gesticulate, clenching his fists or placing his hand on his chest, to give more emphasis to the words. Very bluesy!
Even with the acoustic guitar, he doesn't joke around: tuned in drop D, he uses the slide with disarming speed, in addition to often using finger-picking with both the acoustic and electric.
His fellow musicians are two excellent players, showing their talent not only when it's time for introductions, with the classic drum and bass solos, but also in the simple accompaniment, precise and solid.
After an hour and a half, Joe bids us farewell, and we say goodbye, happy to have attended a great concert: the music offered is not original, but it's of excellent quality... and in these times that's not insignificant.
P.S.: it seems the live footage will be used to create an official DVD!
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