Joe Bonamassa In Concert

JGT’s Bob Bakert provides his perspective of the recent Joe Bonamassa concert – Saturday, March 4 2023 at the Fox Theater in Atlanta.

Above photo – Brad Jeter

Bob Bakert, Editor: I had excellent seats for this show… right in front of the line array and the front fills – Saturday, March 4 2023 at the Fox Theater in Atlanta. Without a doubt, Joe Bonamassa is a great guitarist.  He has chops, feel, and tone but in addition (and this is important), Joe is a consummate professional performer.  Joe knows his audience absolutely delivers the “goods” from the first downbeat.  It is a well-rehearsed show with great players in support, and indeed he does this so well that I think everyone feels Joe is playing a personal concert just for them (no easy feat).  If we can stretch the definition of jazz to play/sing the head and then “blow on the changes”, Joe does this masterfully. He is a blues/rock player that stretches his lines into much more than the pentatonic vocabulary. The show is extremely well done and produced beautifully.  

So, I thought to myself, ‘here is the lesson’…  If one wants to connect with an audience and develop a strong following so that you are in high demand for good-paying gigs, then a lot can be learned from Joe Bonamassa.  I recommend spending the money to experience a great show and see if there are some takeaways from playing, performing, and production perspectives…

Joe gets AA++ in my book… hard work, professionalism, and a willingness to connect pay off…!

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