“I’m wearing the wrong shoes. This stage feels like an ice skate” jokes Joe Bonamassa when he speaks for the first time halfway during his set. But not being a man of many words the legendary blues rocker prefers to let his guitar do the talking. Seven years ago he played here in Belgium (Bredene) for only a handful of people, but tonight the 2.200 capacity Elisabethzaal is sold out. In a short period of time Bonamassa established himself as a household name and that has everything to do with his phenomenal talent as a guitarist. Displaying his love for British blues players he started off immediately with Rory Gallagher’s “Cradle Rock”, later on followed by his version of “Midnight Blues” as a tribute to the late Gary Moore (RIP) who tragically died earlier this year. But still only 33 (four days after this gig he turned 34) Bonamassa’s style of playing incorporates a wide range of genres such as delta-blues, rock, jazz, country and even prog-rock. This versatile style of mixing blues, rock and classical influences has become Bonamassa’s trademark. Earlier this year with ‘Dust Bowl’ he released already his eleventh full-length solo album. Still it’s on stage where he’s at his best. Stuck in a tuxedo where he sweated like a horse (“another mistake I made tonight”) Joe displayed a timeless set of blues rock in all kind of forms. Raw, passionate, sensitive, at furious speed or psychedelic, Joe does it all. Surrounded by a solid band with new well-known session drummer Tall Bergman, his set list contained a nice mix of his catalogue repertoire with a.o. “Sloe Gin”, “The Ballad of Joe and Henry” (according to a journalist voted as top ten riff of the last decade), “Lonesome Road Blues“ and “Steal Your Heart Away”. One of the many highlights of the evening was “Woke Up Dreaming”, an acoustic song where Joe showed his skills during a combination of complicated scale patterns and arpeggios at high speed. This ten minute plus solo spot was awesome and showed once more how talented this guy is. It completely blew the audience away and was finally greeted with a well-deserved standing ovation. Then for the final encores he whipped out his Flying V and turned things up a few notches with three covers, namely “Bird On A Wire” (Leonard Cohen) “Just got Paid” ( ZZ Top) and “Dazed and Confused” (Led Zeppelin). Clocking in over more than 2 hours of playing this was truly an amazing gig. Later this year Bonamassa will be back, first as part of a new so called supergroup named ‘Black Country Communion’ (together with Glenn Hughes, Jason Bonham & Derek Sherinian) and in the autumn a new solo tour will bring him back to Brussels. Don’t miss out on both dates!