Joe Bonamassa @ The Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow 18/10/2010.
Gone is the shy young man who I saw at The Ferry in Glasgow a few years ago. He walked through the crowd unnoticed before stepping onto the small stage and blowing everyone away with his playing. These days, Joe Bonamassa sports a sharp suit, has a light show and has arrived on the big stage.
He opened with a perennial favourite of his, Rory Gallagher’s Cradle Rock and peppered the evening with songs from his latest album, Black Rock, along with titles from his already burgeoning back catalogue. The new songs such as Steal Your Heart Away and Three Times A Fool sat very easily with older favourites Sloe Gin, The Ballad Of John Henry and If Heartaches Were Nickels. At times he was hunched over his guitar as if in his own little world only to throw his head back in the ecstasy of the vital note.
Joe’s Scottish girlfriend, Sandi Thom, came on for part of the well deserved encore and the two of them produced an excellent version of Bird On The Wire and different to the one on Black Rock.
So I’ve seen Joe Bonamassa go from a very small venue with less than 100 in the audience to a slightly larger hall with a slightly larger audience and on to the premiere venue in Glasgow with over 2,000 of a crowd. One thing has remained constant and that is his talent and when you go to one of his gigs you know you are in the presence of someone special.
David Blue.
Gone is the shy young man who I saw at The Ferry in Glasgow a few years ago. He walked through the crowd unnoticed before stepping onto the small stage and blowing everyone away with his playing. These days, Joe Bonamassa sports a sharp suit, has a light show and has arrived on the big stage.
He opened with a perennial favourite of his, Rory Gallagher’s Cradle Rock and peppered the evening with songs from his latest album, Black Rock, along with titles from his already burgeoning back catalogue. The new songs such as Steal Your Heart Away and Three Times A Fool sat very easily with older favourites Sloe Gin, The Ballad Of John Henry and If Heartaches Were Nickels. At times he was hunched over his guitar as if in his own little world only to throw his head back in the ecstasy of the vital note.
Joe’s Scottish girlfriend, Sandi Thom, came on for part of the well deserved encore and the two of them produced an excellent version of Bird On The Wire and different to the one on Black Rock.
So I’ve seen Joe Bonamassa go from a very small venue with less than 100 in the audience to a slightly larger hall with a slightly larger audience and on to the premiere venue in Glasgow with over 2,000 of a crowd. One thing has remained constant and that is his talent and when you go to one of his gigs you know you are in the presence of someone special.
David Blue.
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