LIVE: Joe Bonamassa @ SPAC, 8/10/15

Photographs by Andrzej Pilarczyk

OK, raise your hand if you remember the days when Smokin’ Joe Bonamassa was a chubby prepubescent kid firing up his big, bad blues guitar licks at Local 518 clubs like Pauly’s Hotel and Bogie’s long before he was old enough to legally drink there?

Well, things have certainly changed for the Utica guitarslinger, who made his Saratoga Performing Arts Center debut earlier this month.

Bonamassa and his band – fueled by master drummer Anton Fig (who played with Felicia Collins at Schenectady’s Music Haven the previous night) and keyboardist Reese Wyans (a key member of the late Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Double trouble) – burned through their Three Kings show, a tribute to blues guitar giants Albert King, Freddie King and the one and only B.B. King.

JOE BONAMASSA SET LIST
See See Baby (Freddie King)
Some Other Day, Some Other Time (Freddie King)
Lonesome Whistle Blues (Freddie King)
Sittin’ on the Boat Dock (Freddie King)
Love Her With a Feelin’ (Tampa Red)
Going Down (Freddie King)
I’ll Play the Blues for You (Albert King)
I Get Evil (Albert King)
Breaking Up Somebody’s Home (Albert King)
Angel of Mercy (Albert King)
Cadillac Assembly Line (Albert King)
Oh, Pretty Woman (Albert King)
Let the Good Times Roll (B.B. King)
Never Make Your Move Too Soon (B.B. King)
Ole Time Religion (traditional)
Nobody Loves Me But My Mother (B.B. King)
Boogie Woogie Woman (B.B. King)
Hummingbird (B.B. King)
Hide Away (Freddie King)
Born Under a Bad Sign (Albert King)
The Thrill Is Gone (Roy Hawkins)

SECOND OPINIONS:
Jim Gilbert’s review and photographs at NYS Music