Joe Bonamassa

Once in a while a musician comes along who oozes so much talent that it leaves you mesmerised and speechless. Joe Bonamassa is one such artist. However Mr Bonamassa appears to suffer with the same curse as most geniuses in as much as he doesn't appear to ever be in the mainstream spotlight. So it's a fair bet to say after all of these years of never having a mega big hit then chances are he will be one of those great talents that don't ever get the real fame they truly deserve.

This tour coincides with the release of a new album 'Live at Radio City Hall'. Joe is currently playing arenas which usually seat between 10,000-15,000 people, however for the purpose of Joes gig he has had the stage placed half way up the arena so that only around 3,000-4,000 fans can catch him. Making it a very intimate show in a vast arena.

For those of you haven't heard of Joe Bonamassa, he is an American blues guitarist who from an early age was able to play guitar better than some artistes twice his age. Most notably he supported B.B King at the tender age of 12 years old. The term child prodigy is quite apt for this musician. He was a talking point in the USA long before he was acknowledged in the UK.

For someone who is so talented, Joe could quite easily have kept his fans entertained with just his laser precision guitar playing, however for this tour he has an equally talented backing band with him, drummer Anton Fig, and bassist Michael Rhodes.

As the house lights went down a voice announced, "Unfortunately tonight's One Direction Concert has been cancelled, so in their place please welcome, Joe Bonamassa."

Bonamassa and crew opened the set with 'See See Baby'. From there on in it was a non-stop blues orientated feast of music. However the setlist appeared be littered with cover versions (I counted 7 covers), and for someone who is so talented, it felt like he was taking the easy option of doing numerous cover versions albeit pleasurable to listen to, but it would have been great to hear his own original material. Throughout the set, it was easy to hear that Joe is influenced by some of Britain's illustrious rock guitarists such as Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and to some extent Paul Kossoff.

Joe included some of his more pop orientated songs such as 'Sloe Gin' and 'Happier Times', which created a nice contrast to the more traditional blues material he had been playing up until this point.

Joe was joined by a keyboardist (Resse Wynans) and a saxophonist (Paulie Cerra) and Trumpeteer (Lee Thornberg) to bring an additional layer of richness to Joes incredible music. Joe showcases his incredible talent for being able to break a song down to just the guitar and still keep the fans entranced with such mastery of the fretboard during 'Gave Everything Up'.

'Ballad of John Henry' brought the proceedings to a close. However the audience wanted more and sure enough Joe came back for the obligatory encore. The encore included a cover of Beck's 'Spanish Boots'. Leaving the audience in no doubt that they had just spent two and half hours with one of the world's greatest guitarists.

Ticket prices appeared to be over inflated for this show starting from £50 pounds upwards to nearer £90. However it appeared that everyone who had parted with that much hard earned cash appeared to leave the gig happy and feeling they had got their money's worth.

Joe Bonamassa continues his UK tour for the remainder of October dates include Cardiff Motorpoint Arena (Oct 27), Bournemouth BIC (Oct 28), Brighton Centre (Oct 30) and Brighton Centre (Oct 31).