Joe Bonamassa at the Echo Arena, Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

Originally published by L.S. Media. March 29th 2012.

L.S. Media Rating *****

Somebody reminded Joe Bonamassa during his visit to Liverpool that the first time he played near the city, in the excellent venue that was just a well-aimed cannon ball shot across the Mersey to Pacific Road in Birkenhead. In that seemingly short time, Joe has gone onto be one of the greatest guitarists in the world. Technically stunning and with no short comings at all, not musically or as decent human being it seems either.

Joe’s latest tour saw him arrive in the city, to a slightly bigger venue it has to be said than last time and to an audience that had grown ten-fold in a mood to provide the crowd with an intimate set of songs from his 12 released albums so far.

Joe opened the show with songs that captivated the appreciative crowd and in some cases visibly had people open mouthed in stark realisation on how good the music was. Slow Train, Last Kiss and the cover of the great Gary Moore’s track Midnight Blues were greeted in a semi-reverential style and as the gig progressed the applause got louder and at times felt as if there were ten times that number applauding at the end of every song.

There were tracks played on the night that simply blew the crowd away, the wonderful Sloe Gin and the rocking Ballad of John Henry were spot on and seemingly perfect for the night that was overflowing with great tunes.

Joe Bonamassa’s new album is released in May and as the man pointed out towards the end of the night, “12 albums done so far, 130 plus songs, exactly no hits”, he further made a promise that the new album would also have no hits at all on it. To some that would be an almost an act of musical heresy, to acknowledge that your music cannot transcend so called ‘pop culture’. Joe Bonamassa doesn’t need to be considered hip or cool to sell albums; the fact is that he is quite possibly the coolest guy on the planet since the loss of Steve McQueen proves in this case that as long as the music is great, you don’t need a hit record.

This was a sensational evening that bought together a love of incredible music and an appreciation for all things rock and blues.  Stunning!

Ian D. Hall