Joe Bonamassa and Oz Noy at the Bitter End: The Best Deal of the Year!

By Kaju Roberto

As I was leaving the Bitter End on Dec. 5, I ran into a familiar cat who I had been standing in line with outside the door two hours earlier.  All he said to me was, “This was the best deal all year!” My verdict? I couldn’t agree more. By far, this was the BEST DEAL of the Year! The Oz Noy and Joe Bonamassa early show was pure fire! 

Forget that I arrived super early and thought I would be comped with my press pass in hand at the door. Unlike other events I’ve covered where I didn’t have tickets, it didn’t happen. But I still consider myself really lucky. All the tickets were sold out for weeks for both shows. Despite this, when I told Paul I was covering the show for the Village View, he recognized me and let me pay a $25 cash cover to see the show. 

Joe Bonamassa: Modern Blues Guitar Legend as a Sideman?

Please forgive me. Yes, I know this was Oz Noy’s gig, a great guitarist by any standard, who was accompanied by the great musicians of “Late Show” fame Will Lee on bass, and Steve Ferrone on drums. Noy’s solos were great and he incorporated more jazz-blues licks into his playing on stage. Lee on bass and Ferrone on drums provided, as one would expect, the rock-solid foundation. They both are “Top of the Top” echelon musicians. 

But I’d simply be lying if I told you I came here to see anyone but Joe–as in “Mr. Bonamassa.” It was strange indeed to see Joe up there on stage dressed down in his “Blue Note hoodie” not looking like the guy from “The Matrix” dressed in a suit and shades, trading solos with Noy as a sideman. I suppose this was a fun change for him. 

Does Joe Bonamassa Play with Feel?

Perhaps what intrigued me so much more to cover this story is that I learned Mr. Joe Bonamassa is a polarizing figure in the guitar world. Being a blues rock guitarist myself for over five decades, I had to find out the truth. 

All roads lead back to this burning question: “Can Joe Bonamassa play with feel?” What I do know is that he has been (perhaps unfairly) criticized for playing the blues “without feel.” Playing too many notes? Not playing enough notes? Playing the wrong choice of notes? You get it.

Going to cover this show was as much about my curiosity of why this modern blues master has received so much hate and to see if I could gain a better understanding of it. Or maybe to completely dispel the myth.

After watching Joe play everything from live ripping improvised solos on “Crossroads” to ultra-sensitive yet highly dynamic phasing on “Little Wing,” I am now totally convinced. Nothing could be further from the truth!  Joe Bonamassa can play with great feel, AND he is a superb technically gifted player as well!

A LIVE Case Study: “Crossroads” vs. “Little Wing”

With his classic burgundy-red Gibson SG, Joe absolutely ripped a “new one” into the fabric of the space time continuum during his solo on “Crossroads,” replete with all of those classic high sustaining double bends and rapid-fire pull-offs reminiscent of Clapton off the Cream “Disraeli Gears” album. 

Toward the end of that solo, when he “lit up” the high end of the neck with crazy searing double bends blended in with that adjacent “shaking string noise,” it was pure fire-breathing. He had “Uncle Willie” on bass smiling!

However, during his rendition of “Little Wing” by Jimi Hendrix, Joe shifted to a stark contrast in soloing style. It was an open canvas, where he used a clean tone with a lot of reverb coming from his Fender Twin amp.  Throughout the solo, he started building up slowly by playing softly with ultra-sensitive yet highly dynamic phasing, mixed with Hendrix-like reverse pick sweeps outlining the chords. 

Eventually it built up to where near the finale, he kicked in that distortion / compression pedal, building a crescendo up with a high sustaining solo!

Best Deal of the Year!

Let me close by saying once again: the combo of Joe Bonamassa, Oz Noy, Will Lee, and Steve Ferrone was indeed the “Best Deal of the Year!”

Subsequently, I found out that Joe was playing with a .014 high E string all night, since he kept breaking his strings. That is an incredibly thick string for a high E that is a very difficult to play and bend.  However, if you were in the audience, listening to Joe playing you never would have known this. 

Best of all, after that great early set performance, the “cherry on top of the ice cream sundae” was that Joe was nice enough to take a selfie with me!