Hey Joe Whaddya Know?

Sometimes when I watch other guitar players I get sick to my stomach. Not because they are bad but because they are so good that they remind me I am a hack and should just stop. Happily I don't listen to that stuff anymore (I did stop playing for about 5 years when I decided I would never write a song as "The Only Living Boy In New York").

In the mail today I got the new blu-ray from Joe Bonamassa, who is one of those aforementioned guitarists who make me sick. My buddy Tom, the lead guitarist in Braddock Station Garrison where's that? that's my band, pay attention dammit!, turned me on to him. So thanks Tom! I watched it today and got revved up and decided to write about my boy Joe.

Here's Joe doing "Woke Up Dreaming." This is from his Royal Albert Hall show a few years ago. Be warned it is 10 minutes long. If you only watch a few minutes you'll get the point.

Um, yeah. OK. You see where I am coming from now. This is what happens when your parents have a guitar shop and you've been playing since you were 7 years old. I won't blame my parents for not owning a guitar shop instead I'll just assume that even with the guitar shop and a zillion hours to play I still wouldn't be able to approach what Joe is doing here.

Yes it is really show-offy but that's kind of the point, right? I like when awesome guitar players just let the songs speak for themselves and for the most part decide not to show off but it's also cool to watch an awesome guitar player say "frak it I am going to do something crazy good and make all you punks cry when you next strum Wonderwall."

I like what he does here playing with different styles and using volume to bring the song up and down.  I like that he has bobble heads of himself on his amps. I like that his fingers are moving so fast in spots they are a blur. There's probably little sonic booms going off in the theater. Joe, we no longer know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall because you and your rocket-propelled fingers are making new ones all over the place! Stop!

He's playing the Warner Theater here in DC the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Tickets are already procured though I am much further back than I would have liked. Ah well, so it goes. There will likely be a blog post the Sunday after Thanksgiving where I pretty much just drool onto the keyboard so be ready.

Since that video was an acoustic piece I will leave you with Joe and his band crushing a rocker called "Slow Train." This was the show that was used for the new blu-ray but this particular clip is from a lucky SOB in the third row.