Joe Banamassa - Saw him Tuesday night

[JoeMan]

Went with a friend from church to see Joe B on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  For those who don't know him, he's been gaining more and more traction through his twenties on the blues scene...he's 32 now.  Has great chops and lots of soul.  Last time he was in Greenville, he barely filled a 200 capacity club.  This time, he packed out the Peace Center - 2,000 people and about the nicest place in town.

I looked up some recent JB vids which I thought might share the experience with y'all.  At times he will reflect a bit of Eric Johnson influence - whom he admires a lot.  When he first came on, his tone was thick and growly, similar to Brian Setzer’s meaner sound.  Also plays with more velvety tones like EJ.  He also played a glass tube slide twice, does well with that.  
 
Here are some recent YT vids of Joe B which closely represent some of the stuff he did tonight at the Peace Center.  You don’t have to watch all of these, but you just may stick around and do so...
 
Acoustic:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AOsP8KBp8g&feature=related   The first part of this and then the picking which starts back up at 7:15 thru the end is pretty amazing…he did this kind of stuff.
 
Slow & Jammy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty7BJu3ddk0 
 
Slow blues: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyLtbHDbG9w - this is my favorite amongst these clips and as well as what he played on Tuesday.
 
Young Man Blues (old Who song): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ti9RyuwUqk  He rocks it up pretty good…did this tonight as well.
 
He played about 5 different Les Pauls on Tuesday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tHx97gmE90 
 
Hope you enjoy some of these vids.  He had a lot of fun playing here in Gville…2 hours solid, non stop.  

[Mark M]

The first one where he's playing the acoustic just kills. The tone and dynamics that he has is unbelieveble and seems like he could go on and on.

The second one he gets that creamy overdiven tone similar to Eric Johnson and his playing at times is very similar to EJ too. I saw another vid where Joe explains his entire setup from guitar to effects to amp's. His signature series Les Paul really isn't anything special as far as electronics goes so there's no secret there. His pedals are the same stock pedals that most guys use. What's interesting is that he uses four amp's, three of which I'm not familiar with but his main one is a Marshall that he bought used for 400 bucks. That's funny. The thickest, creamiest tone he gets is when he uses two amp's at once with effects... cool. I still don't understand how he gets his tone though. I think that he's just a master at fiddling with everthing and getting a combination of things to sound great, plus I'm sure a lot of it comes from his fingers, just like EJ.

Am I rambling? I'm rambling.

Last thing: check out Joe on Emusic.com because there's lots on there.

MM

[Paul Wargo]

Wow...that sure is some fleet fingered fretboard fireworks featuring fabulous finesse as well.

[Mark M]

That's a lot of "F" words.