Blues-rock guitarist Joe Bonamassa's sold-out May 4, 2009 performance at London's Royal Albert Hall was the culmination of a lifelong dream and better than two decades of hard work and touring. Captured on camera and released as the two-DVD set Live From The Royal Albert Hall, Bonamassa delivers a performance that is the epitome of the blues.
While brief interludes scatted throughout the video provide glimpses into the artist's life, a lengthier interview with Bonamassa is included as a bonus feature and provides greater insight into the guitarist's creative process and songwriting efforts. The music speaks for itself, however, and Live From The Royal Albert Hall provides plenty of music for blues lovers to enjoy.
Joe Bonamassa's Live From The Royal Albert Hall
From the elegant, melodic opening instrumental "Django," Bonamassa and band drop the hammer with a heavier than Heavy, hurricane-strength reading of the guitarist's "The Ballad of John Henry" from his album of the same name. The sound blasts out of your speakers like a gale-force wind, shaking the timbers down to the concrete foundation. Dual drummers add to the devastating explosiveness of the performance, while a strong bass presence provides the aftershock.
Bonamassa's guitar solo on the song is truly otherworldly, the young fretburner coaxing sounds out of his axe that may never have been heard on Earth before. "The Ballad of John Henry" is just a great blues-rock song, possibly one of the greatest ever, resting comfortably in a direct lineage from Howlin' Wolf's "Evil" and Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love" in the pantheon of crushing blues tunes.
So It's Like That
By contrast, the bluesy shuffle of Bonamassa's "So It's Like That" comes as sweet relief, the guitar-driven heartbreaker no less potent, just not as inhumanly oppressive. With a blustery horn section and an energetic keyboard solo (love the Siddhartha statue sitting above the keys), Bonamassa's torn-n-frayed guitar solo rises above the mix.
"So Many Roads" rides the fine line between smoldering blues and R&B torch song, with deep-seated melancholy expressed through Bonamassa's heartbreak solo and an emotionally-charged soundtrack where the horns ascend to the heavens only to be brought back down to Earth, Icarus-like, by Bonamassa's crying, crashing flurry of notes.
Introducing Eric Clapton
Joined by his childhood idol, Eric Clapton, Bonamassa introduces a performance of "Further On Up The Road," telling the audience that it was the first song that he ever played on the guitar. From Duane Allman and Robert Cray to B.B. King, Clapton has always played better when challenged by another talented guitarist, and in Bonamassa he has the perfect foil. The two tag-team the song with a boogie-blues mastery shared by few on the planet, and if their shared vocals are unremarkable, they both let their guitars do the talking.
Both guitarists cut loose with an amazing display of soulful technique, delivering a "dream date," as it were, for many blues fans. After 45 years, Clapton can still blaze the strings when inspired, and his extended jam on "Further On Up The Road" proves that there's still some fire left in the old dog yet.
Goin' Down The Delta
An inspired cover of Charley Patton's "High Water Everywhere" is afforded a heady, almost tribal drumbeat bombast as Bonamassa gets his fingers dirty with a little Delta mud. Wielding an acoustic guitar like he was born with it in his hands, Bonamassa takes the Delta blues classic into another realm, mixing the dark-hued grit of the almost 90-year-old original with jazzy, foreboding fretwork and soulful vocals.
The cloudy atmosphere of "Happier Times" is made all the bleaker and seemingly hopeless by the hypnotic, deep bass rhythms and parallel drumbeats. Channeling the song's heartache through his instrument, Bonamassa's tasteful, emotional solos flow through his fingertips to create a truly blue mood.
Introducing Paul Jones
The former voice of British invasion hitmakers Manfred Mann, Paul Jones is a popular British deejay that Bonamassa credits for his U.K. popularity. Joining the guitarist on stage for a cover of Sonny Boy Williamson's classic "Your Funeral My Trial," Bonamassa's staggering fretwork is matched perfectly by Jones' harpwork and a fast-walking rhythm. Jones blows the harp like Sonny Boy reborn, with well-placed notes, carefully considered, with great tone. The call and response between Jones and Bonamassa at the end of the song is a welcome throwback to an earlier era of the blues.
Bonamassa's original "Story Of A Quarrymen" is a Jimi Hendrix-styled stomp-and-stammer with hard rock roots and a riff so elementally heavy that it should be added to the periodic table. A cover of ZZ Top's "Just Got Paid" comes close to replicating the Texas blues strut of the original, and if Bonamassa's scorching guitar-pickin' lacks the tumbleweed and cactus vibe of Billy Gibbons' fretwork, it comes mighty close in spirit nonetheless. Rocking a 1982 Gibson Flying V guitar for all it's worth, Bonamassa blows away any possible doubts about his instrumental prowess with an explosive performance.
The Reverend's Bottom Line
Live From The Royal Albert Hall is no cheap-o DVD set with some flimsy black plastic wrapped around a couple of discs. Bonamassa and his crew didn't skimp on the budget, and the twelve-camera shoot captures the entire performance from nearly every angle possible. The result is the most visually exciting music video that you'll ever see, as well as the most ear-pleasing.
Live, there's just no touching this guy...Bonamassa was opening for B.B. King at the age of 12, and with 20 years of experience under his belt, he's simply an electrifying showman. Fulfilling a life's dream, Bonamassa is in rare form throughout this performance, leading his band to great heights in the creation of some great blues music. His playing is nothing short of amazing, running the gamut from silken finger-picking to full-blown blues-rock rage, and every subtle shade of blue in between. (J & R Adventures, released October 6, 2009)
