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“Halleluiah, good to see ya!”, indeed. “Evil Mama” kept the tempo high, trading the boogie for funk, and “Just Cos You Can, Don’t Mean You Should” gave us our first proper blast of Reese Wynans tinkling his organ. Stop giggling at the back! A Hammond organ. Grow up! Having shot my three songs, I took my seat (that still sounds weird), and sat back to enjoy the show, just in time for “Self Inflicted Wounds”, one of the tracks I’d listened to after reading Dave’s review… and it didn’t disappoint. Live, it spreads out and has space to breathe. Of particular note was Jade McRae’s scintillating vocal, stepping up from ‘backing singer’ to give a performance to rival Clare Torry on Floyd’s “The Great Gig In The Sky”. This incredible standard of musicianship is on display all over the stage. The horn section pairing of Lee Thornburg and Paulie Cerra play it cool and make it look effortless. The aforementioned Reese Wynans looks like he’s having the time of his life, and it’s great to see. Michael Rhodes does that thing that bass players do… not quite at the back, not quite up front, not even moving that much, but every twitch of his shoulders or crane of his neck felt purposeful. At the back, Anton Fig is playing the shit out of what looks like a relatively small kit. So, what what about the man himself, Mr Bonamassa? Naturally, he looks his usual iconic self; hair slicked back, shades, sharp suit with open-collar shirt, and one of many iconic guitars slung around his neck. He doesn’t have much to say, in fact he doesn’t speak at all for the first hour, instead swiftly moving from song to song, stretching out the jams, and letting his fingers do the talking, and here’s the thing; I had feared that spending two hours in a room with a guitarist as lauded as Bonamassa, revered for his solos over anything else, might feel like I was intruding on a private show for the wannabe fretboard wankers, drooling lasciviously over every widdly-widdly bit… but it wasn’t. I’m sure there were ‘that sort’ there, and of course there were a lot of fans too, but it felt like most were drawn in by the chance to watch a master at work, and enjoy some great music. Bonamassa and his ensemble of players have been together for a long time, and it shows. They are tighter than a Scotsman’s purse strings, and look really at ease with one another. Nine songs in, and Joe Bonamasssa unveiled his eyes for the first time… and spoke! “There’s a hair salon in Plympton [residential area of Plymouth] that sells guitars!”, he divulged. “True story! I just thought you should know how the people roll down here! …I’m moving to Plympton!” After the banter, and the band member introductions, the shades go back on, and the sublime modern blues masterpiece (in my humble opinion) “Slow Train” gets the show back on track, before the highlight of the evening, “Sloe Gin”. In case I hadn’t already been fully converted to the Bonamassa cause yet, this was the tipping point! He wrung every last ounce of emotion out of every string on every fret. For the first time this evening, a subjective, cool reviewer, leapt out of his seat, whooped, yelled, and clapped until his hands were the colour of a ginger’s suntan. It appears it wasn’t just me, as from this point on, seats were vacated, and the aisles were rammed. All inhibitions and British restraint were abandoned. This is more like it. This is no longer a show, it’s a gig… and so it stayed, through a rapturous callback, till after the perfect encore, “Mountain Time”, and the inevitable spill out into the cold, dark night. JB and the band gave an outstanding performance tonight, and I’m a bloody idiot for not believing the hype for all these years! On the way out, I raided the merch table in a vain attempt at redemption. I am the proud owner of a couple of fine albums that I will be shoving in the ears of anyone who dares get in my car for the foreseeable future! Joe Bonamassa will return to these shores in the Spring. Please do get a ticket if you can. Take it from a brand new JB bore, it’ll be awesome! Check the dates here. Review: Rob N Images: Rob Nankivell Photography [gallery type='flickr' user_id='132278830@N06' view='photosets' photoset_id='72157702386980595' media='photos' columns='3' tag_mode='any' sort='date-posted-desc' per_page='23' layout='square' caption='title' thumb_size='s' main_size='z' ]]]>
