Joe Bonamassa rocks out at the NIA

Joe Bonamassa

NIA Academy, Birmingham

Concert review and photos by Ian Harvey

American blues rock star Joe Bonamassa continues to grow his audience the old fashioned way, with a relentless touring schedule which has seen him cross-cross the Midlands some half a dozen times in the past 18 months.

Bonamassa's last Birmingham concert was in November 2008, when he played one of the smaller halls at the NEC as part of the Music Live event.

See our concert photo gallery to the right

Now, following his landmark Royal Albert Hall concert last May, and back to promote his latest album Black Rock, he has stepped up to the city's NIA Academy in front of an audience 4,000 strong.

Bonamassa continues to prove to be one of the most thrilling of guitarists, whether thundering through the heavy electric numbers like The Ballad Of John Henry and ZZ Top's Just Got Paid, finding the emotional core of songs like So Many Roads, or astonishing with his extended acoustic workout on Woke Up Dreaming. Never has the humble acoustic guitar sounded so, well, electric.

Sloe Gin remains his signature song, Bonamassa's vocal performance utterly enthralling and mesmerising, a song that makes the searing agony of losing the love of your life sound almost beautiful and worthwhile.

Leonard Cohen's Bird On A Wire was given a similarly sensitive treatment.

But the overall memory of last night's show is of an artist who is completely in touch with his inner rock god – Bonamassa even coming on to the stage to the strains of Iron Maiden's Two Minutes To Midnight.