By: Joe Lang
Joe Bonamassa is the fiercest touring electric guitar player under 30 on the face of the planet, bar none. No, he doesn’t have the good looks or pop sensibility that some of his “contemporaries” have, like Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Johnny Lang or John Mayer, he just has chops ‘till next Tuesday and a napalm tone that soothes and sears as he streaks up and down his guitar neck with some of the ballsiest playing you ever heard. The real fuckin’ deal.
I’d first heard Bonamassa on some cuts from his 2004 release, Had to Cry Today. Unfortunately for me, I dismissed him as another in the long line of young Arian blues-rock-wannabes based on the uninspired title track, a cover of the Blind Faith tune from their self-titled 1969 debut.
It wasn’t until I read Scott Henderson’s assessment of Bonamassa that I decided to give him a second listen: “Joe is awesome…he sings and plays his ass off. After hearing the first note on his record, you can tell this guy knows about guitar tone.”
After walking in some time midway through Bonamassa’s set, I realized how right Henderson was. With the exception of maybe Jeff Beck, no one I’ve seen has come close to the sweetness of Bonomassa’s tone. Throughout his set, he switched guitars several times, from chunky Les Pauls to sweet and cutting Strats, to a Takamine acoustic. Everytime he switched, his tone from his boutique amps would change a little bit, but it always remained fresh and dynamic.
Bonamassa also never took his foot off the pedal for more than a song or two – aside from an acoustic ballad and the slow encore. Bonamassa ripped into blues standards like Willie Dixon’s “Spoonful” and his own funky-ass blues-rock tunes with Jimmy Page-like abandon and an amazing technique oozing of heroes like Eric Johnson and Jeff Beck.
Location Info:
Cabooze
Artist Info: Joe Bonamassa
Share this story:
Article comments powered by Disqus