JOE BONAMASSA | LIVE REVIEW
Motorpoint Arena Cardiff, Fri 9 Mar
Joe Bonamassa is a living legend. A guitarist of his calibre needs a large venue and the Motorpoint Arena was filled to capacity for the opening gig of his European tour. The curtain backdrop had a feel of the dusty barroom but instead of smoke, the air was filled with electric-blues, soul-blues and jazz-blues.
Let me reiterate, this man is one astonishing musician – he could play Happy Birthday on two strings and bring the house down – and, boy, does he have stamina. The gig started promptly at 8pm and ended with an encore at 10.15. There were at least 10 guitar changes, and while his backup band took a break Bonamassa kept on playing. An outstanding performance that would impress even the least musically-inclined person – it’s a shame the venue was not as impressive. Seating in the stalls was more cramped than a cheap airline, which made it difficult not to rub shoulders with your neighbours and impossible to get to or from a seat without causing what looked like a Mexican wave. It was distracting.
So was the use of mobile phones. At around 70 quid a ticket, you’d think all eyes would be fixed on the artist, not a Facebook page or a phone camera lens – I counted seven people filming in my area alone. At the end of the gig, Joe made an impassioned plea for the audience not to put recorded footage on YouTube, while conceding that videos would probably end up there anyway.
I was disappointed not to hear classics like Dust Bowl and Midnight Blues, and thought he should have played Sloe Gin, but I’m only a minifan – diehard followers, it seems, did not agree. “You can listen to his old stuff at home,” said one Bonamassa superfan. “When you go to a gig you want something fresh.” They got what they came for – there were a few old songs thrown in, but this was above all a showcase for the new album, Black Coffee, which is out in September.
words LYNDA NASH photos RAYMOND BANNISTER