Hi Everyone – I normally use the ‘reviews’ section to comment on how our own gigs went, but thought I’d tell you about the concert I went to on Friday night. As the title suggests it was Joe Bonamassa at Sydney’s State Theatre, and it was great! This is the third time I’ve seen Joe live now, and I’d certainly go again next time he comes over here. This time Joe opened with a few acoustic numbers, including a great cover of Bad Company’s ‘Seagull’ as well as the title track of his latest album, ‘Driving towards the daylight’. Then as the lights dimmmed a little the rest of the band came out, and when the lights came back up Joe had one of his trademark Les Paus’s in hand, and they kicked off the ‘main’ electric part of the set with ‘Slow Train Coming’. The support had been one-man-band Claude Hay – well worth checking out, by the way – doing some rootsy influenced songs with a slightly acoustic flavour, and Joe’s opening had continued the theme to an extent – so Slow Train Coming was like an explosion!

The band were on top form and just kept it all coming – plenty of great solos from Joe of course, but good tight backing from the other guys all night too. Complaints? Well, being the third time live and after watching plenty of DVD performances, we did notice that some arrangements were slightly shortened – but that did mean more songs could fit into the set list, so you can take that how you want. Joe’s guitar got a bit too loud in a couple of songs for me, almost overpowering the band (and yes, I’m a guitarist!) – but only occasionaly, and predominantly the sound was great!

To wrap it up, it was a great night. A good support act, and a great show by Joe and the band. I happily forked out for (another) t-shirt, plus a DVD! If you ever get the chance to see Joe, my strong advice is to take it – you won’t be sorry.

Mark.

Well – What a great night we had on Saturday! One of those nights when the crowd was in the mood for good time and hopefully went away well satisfied! It was certainly fun for us – you’ve got to love it when the floor in front of you is full of people dancing and singing the choruses with you. So full in fact that in the second last song someone crashed backwards over a floor wedge and knocked Simon’s mic into his face! Unfazed, Simon just picked up the mic and stand and kept singing, not missing a beat!  –  Rock and Roll, Simon!

For the train-spotters out there, the mic was an SM58, and yes, it remained totally unharmed by the experience… (But Simon will  have a very nice bruise for a few days!)

It was a busy couple of weekends for us – Friday at the Merton was fun as always, and our decision to finish with a brace of Angels and Jet songs was vindicated!  So much so that we decided to take the same approach for the party on the 28th, and once again it went down well!  Congrats to Eric and Daniela for a great party! It was huge – including an enormous Marquee complete with dance floor – which we’re happy to say got plenty of use! If you were there, hope you had as good a time as we did!

We got a pretty good turnup again, and had a few people up dancing. Not sure about our use of an acoustic in the first two songs – seemed like a good idea at the time but I don’t think it really made us much quieter. The re-introduction of ‘Summertime’ was well received, so it may get a few more runs in upcoming gigs – sorry James! (he hates drumming quietly…).  Anyway, a good night was had by all, and it was great to see so many of our supporters there!