Joe Bonamassa: Beacon Theatre - Live From New York Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Joe Bonamassa: Beacon Theatre - Live From New York Blu-ray Movie Review

A fantastic concert by an "unknown" legend.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 7, 2012

Despite having achieved considerable commercial success, the name of Joe Bonamassa is still relatively unknown outside of guitar aficionados and a certain class of blues and rock fans. Bonamassa’s background and discography are extremely varied and incredibly impressive, including such feats as opening for B.B. King when Bonamassa was all of 12, and later forming a band with the sons of legends Miles Davis and Robby Krieger. Bonamassa’s solo career has seen number one charting albums in the Blues category and collaborations with any number of rock and blues legends. Bonamassa is a New York native whose parents owned a guitar store, perhaps helping him to absorb the instrument’s vocabulary by something akin to osmosis. He’s an unlikely superstar, not especially charismatic and fairly low key in his personality and stage presence, but once his fingers hit the strings, there’s no mistaking the incredible virtuosity that Bonamassa has at his beck and call. While this 2011 Beacon Theater performance in New York City sticks fairly closely to a general blues feeling, traces of flat out rock and incipient flowerings of jazz and pop also populate Bonamassa’s diverse vocabulary. This is a fairly no frills concert that concentrates on the music rather than stagecraft, and it proves that actual musical talent can sometimes, against considerable odds, outweigh the prevalence of manufactured acts who look good but have no facility with any instrument and who require autotuning to even begin to sound professional vocally. The audience here is rapt and excited to see Bonamassa up close and personal, and this concert finds him in fine form both musically as well as in some nice, albeit brief, interchanges with the assembled masses.

The fact that several of Bonamassa’s albums have charted in the Blues category might some to believe he’s akin to a Johnny Come Lately version of B.B. King, or something like that, but the fact is Bonamassa’s approach is so varied and far reaching that it almost becomes ridiculous to even attempt to pigeonhole him in any given category or genre. The Beacon Theater concert does tend to concentrate on up tempo, riff driven tunes, several of which follow the basic three chord structure of classic blues, but Bonamassa repeatedly pushes the envelope even within this fundamental structure. At other times Bonamassa indulges in considerably more complex songs, eliciting a huge variety of tones from various guitars that vary from subtle, sine-wave purity to growling ferocity. It’s like watching an instrumental chameleon who at one moment might be Mark Knopfler, another moment Bill Frisell, and at another someone as iconic as John McLaughlin.

While Bonamassa is front and center for the bulk of this concert, singing and playing the majority of an interesting and propulsive set list, he does bring on a really interesting assortment of guests to help out with various tunes. His recent collaborator Beth Hart comes on stage and wows the audience with a couple of gritty songs, and later both John Hiatt and Paul Rodgers lend their formidable talents to the proceedings. Bonamassa is a gracious host, but he seems almost too shy to even introduce these people, bringing up their guest turns almost in passing and then letting the surprise kind of wash over the audience in waves.

Bonamassa seems almost to be a genuine underground phenomenon in a way. His albums regularly chart, he obviously has a rabid and loyal fan base which regularly helps his live concerts sell out rather quickly, and yet if you were to ask the general populace, even those who like guitar “rock gods” about him, chances are most, if not all, would shrug at the mention of his name, not recognizing it. Bonamassa has two nice live Blu-rays out now, this one and a previous one that was recorded at The Royal Albert Hall, and perhaps they can help him break through to true mainstream acceptance and acclaim. It’s a rare artist that can segue from the hard driving “Slow Train” to something as gloriously lyrical as “Mountain Time” (my personal favorite on this concert, and one of the prettiest tunes in Bonamassa’s large and varied repertoire), but Bonamassa proves that not only is he a jack of all (or at least most) guitar trades, he’s also a master of all of them, truly a rare feat. Joe's set list includes:

72nd St. Subway Blues

Slow Train

Cradle Rock

When the Fire Hits the Sea

Midnight Blues

Dust Bowl

The River

I’ll Take Care of You (with Beth Hart)

Sinner’s Prayer (with Beth Hart)

You Better Watch Yourself

Steal Your Heart Away

Bird on a Wire

Down Around My Place (with John Hiatt)

I Know a Place (with John Hiatt)

Blue and Evil

Walk in my Shadows (with Paul Rodgers)

Fire and Water (with Paul Rodgers)

Mountain Time

Young Man Blues

Joe Bonamassa: Beacon Theatre - Live From New York Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Joe Bonamassa: Live from New York Beacon Theater Is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of J-Records with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is generally a solid looking release, with crisp and well detailed imagery, at least with regard to the close-ups. As is frequently the case with these live concert offerings, midrange and especially far range shots often suffer in comparison to the close-ups and have a somewhat softer, blurrier look. Black levels are really consistent and wonderfully inky here, though shadow detail is sometimes lacking in the upstage and wings areas. As should be expected by now for anyone who is used to these lushly lit concert outings, once again a quasi- posterizing effect is well in evidence in deeply red and/or blue lit sequences. Again, as usual, lights aimed squarely at the cameras also suffer from very noticeable banding.

Joe Bonamassa: Beacon Theatre - Live From New York Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Joe Bonamassa: Live from New York Beacon Theater features three audio options, a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix, an uncompressed LPCM 2.0 stereo fold down, and a standard Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. The two lossless tracks offer superior fidelity with some awesome low end (just exactly what is that amazing LFE that starts out the concert—it doesn't look the drums are being played, but there sure is some heavy "thumping" going on). While the 5.1 track offers excellent spaciousness, I personally wished Bonamassa's vocals had been mixed up further, as they're often buried in the instrumental mass, something that is ameliorated somewhat in the LPCM 2.0 track, where a lot more of the lyrics can be heard. Fidelity throughout all frequency ranges is excellent and the many different guitars Bonamassa uses throughout the concert all sound fantastic.

Joe Bonamassa: Beacon Theatre - Live From New York Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• If Heartaches Were Nickels (1080i; 8:00)


• Woke Up Dreaming (1080i; 11:01) is a gorgeous solo performance and seems like it might have been the encore for the evening.


• A Friend Stops By (1080i; 8:20) has none other than David Crosby dropping by backstage to talk with Joe about an alternate guitar tuning (DADGAD), and then to play a little bit. This is a very sweet and low key interchange between a living legend and another legend in the making.


• A Busker's Tale (1080i; 1:52) features footage of Joe playing for subway audiences (included as a montage in the concert's pre- credits sequence) accompanied by Joe's concert patter about the situation, including a great punch line.


• Photo Gallery (1080i; 7:40)

Joe Bonamassa: Beacon Theatre - Live From New York Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Those of you who are already Joe Bonamassa fans are well aware of this lion's incredible virtuosity in just about any and every genre he sets out to tackle. The bulk of this concert tends to focus more squarely on blues and rock, but any given tune offers the opportunity for Bonamassa to take off in any number of unexpected directions, giving the overall concert an unpredictable air that adds to its allure. Bonamassa's virtuosity is simply undeniable, and while many fans will probably prefer his hard driving efforts which are here in abundance, I personally loved the quieter moments, such as the truly stunning "Mountain Time", which manages to be both lyrical and incredibly propulsive once the band kicks in. This Blu-ray has some appealing supplements and features solid video and superior audio. If you're a Bonamassa fan, this is a no brainer. If you've never heard of Bonamassa (and chances are a lot of you reading this haven't), take a chance on this disc, especially if you like unbelievably good guitar playing. Highly recommended.