Review: Joe Bonamassa, Colston Hall

Joe Bonamassa is a genuine phenomenon in this celebrity obsessed, music streaming, social media fixated, famous for fifteen seconds day and age – he’s forged a rather decent career by doing weird things such as…being able to play a bit, recording quality stuff prolifically (fifteen LPs in thirteen years man), touring properly (i.e. frequently) and treating his audience with more than a bit of respect. In addition he’s done this with neither the approval nor the permission of the fashion police. Indeed he’s built a career to such an extent that he can sell out the Albert Hall without troubling either the zeitgeist surfers or the lumpen mainstream music purchasing straight world. Not content with doing his own thang he’s formed an on-off-on again (maybe) rock group Black Country Communion with Glenn Hughes, Jason Bonham and Derek Sherinian; recorded and performed with Beth Hart and when he’s not doing all of the above he has a jazz-funk band Rock Candy Funk Party.

He does things differently too when it comes to touring – as well as the usual theatres and stuff he likes to chop things around, so he played a run of four shows in that London in 2013 with three different bands; recorded an acoustic LP / DVD at the Viena Opera House, and naturally having recently released a new album Blues of Desperation comprising original material, he’s doing a run of dates billed as “A Salute to the British Blues Explosion: a Homage to Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page”. The show arrived at the Colston Hall on a clagging Tuesday evening, the place sold out well in advance: a given for all of his shows. Bonamassa was joined by a frankly excellent band, most of whom are his regular accomplices: Reese Wynans (keys), Anton Fig (drums), Michael Rhodes (bass) and Russ Irwin (guitar and keys) – the band opening the set with the instantly recognisable drum intro to Beck’s Bolero, building up the vibe before Bonamassa himself sauntered on stage in his usual sunglasses after dark and Kray Twins suit, peeling off the riff and then peeling off the first of many blinding solos.

The stage set itself was pretty sparse but there was a rather mobile almost sentient prog lighting rig to liven up the proceedings – the band belonging to the stoic n static school of stage craft, apart from the odd wander round, whilst Bonamassa threw some very subtle shapes and let his fingers do the talking (and to be fair, his face do the gurning). The band dipped in to Clapton’s and Zep’s oeuvres with Mainline Florida and the twin keys attack of a rollicking Boogie with Stu and these opening cuts set the tone – this was no karaoke session with the tunes played with reverence and dull exactitude, nor was it a stars in their eyes lovefest. Rather the band took the tunes off their pedestals and gave them a bloody good seeing to – messing with structure, injecting nuances of their own and delivering a set of living, breathing tunes with vim and vigour.

Bonamassa addressed the crowd after this opening salvo, mentioning that he’d last played the Colston back in 2009 and speculated they’d not invited him back for being “too loud or something…” (An odd statement given the numerous excellent concerts featuring Motörhead at said venue over the past three decades or more) but he was pleased to be back. The next hour and a half passed by in something of a blur as the band did the salute thing, hitting us with material from Jeff Beck, the Bluesbreakers, Cream, Clapton and Zep. The choices made were excellent: more obscure cuts in favour of deeper tunes (Beck’s Plynth for instance, which was given an almost Purple vibe with the aggressive keys and Blackmore-esque guitar); there was variety in the presentation (trio for Spanish Boots, and Bonamassa solo for Zep’s Tea for One and most of White Summer / Black Mountain Side) along with plenty of rather stunning musicianship delivered with zero showboating or indulgence. Bonamassa engaged with the crowd between numbers with stories detailing his relationships with the songs, but easily the best reaction came when he answered a call for Ace of Spades with the finger – bringing the house down.

Motherless Children was loose and rollicking, SWLABR (Bonamassa still confused by the lyrics apparently) delivered with panache and I Can’t Quite You Baby drawing much from the original as well as the Zep version. Highlighting the Bluesbreakers material was a canny move, given the importance of that band to the development of the Brit blues, and in fact it was clear the set had been chosen and sequenced with care and commitment rather than being a thrown together publicity generating gimmick.

The show concluded with more Zep – a snotty punked up How Many More Times with a snippet from The Hunter and that was the British Blues Explosion saluted in no uncertain terms. There was but a single encore, but then it was Bonamassa’s signature tune Sloe Gin, the crowd hanging on every note as well as providing some vocals, and the tune was taken to new heights building to a thunderous climax and an immaculate variation on the recorded version’s elegiac solo. A successful salute for sure but…no Peter Green? And the snippet of The Hunter reminded us that Paul Kossoff deserves to stand alongside the other players covered but with any luck those guys will be getting their salute when we get part two of the salute, eh Joe?

Image Gavin Lowrey