The Juxtaposition of Joe Bonamassa Live

On Friday 12 September 2014 I had the conflicted pleasure of being there when Joe Bonamassa graced Auckland with a live performance. The concert had no support act and was instead billed as Joe Bonamassa supporting Joe Bonamassa, being split into two parts, an opening acoustic set (~50 minutes) followed by an electric set and encore (~90 minutes).

The acoustic set was absolutely brilliant and stunning, however the electric set was marred by being excessively loud - so much so that it was almost unlistenable. To be fair it may partly be the fact that we were up in the gallery and were almost in line with one of the vertical arrays - however even given that it was far too loud in my opinion for anyone to actually enjoy the music. And Bonamassa does have the reputation of being one of the loudest live rock acts on the planet (and I thought Steve Vai was loud)!

That aside the guitar playing was fantastic but for me the acoustic set was the stand out by a long way - due to the issues expressed above. As a result I am compelled to say no more on the subject.