Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa – Live in Amsterdam

In my opinion, one of the best albums of last year was the second collaboration between Guitarist Joe Bonamassa and singer Beth Hart, “Seesaw”.  Like the first album they did together it was a collection of cover versions of songs by classic artists, and I was just blown away by Beth’s voice.  Happily they did some live shows – not many though, just five or six across Europe, so since the London show sold out before I could get a ticket I headed over to Antwerp to see them perform live, and it’s a show that was definitely one of the best gigs I’ve been to in the last couple of years.  Happily for those fans who didn’t manage to see them at one of the live dates, the show at the Theatre Carre in Amsterdam was filmed and is being released on DVD and Blu-Ray (and there’s also a double CD version too).

There are two discs in the DVD version.  The first is the concert itself, and the second consists of two documentaries, one about the making of the film and the Amsterdam show, and the other covering the whole tour.

Taking the concert first of all, you have almost two hours of footage, containing the entire show (not all artists include the entire show in their DVDs), and it’s all filmed at one show rather than being made up of the best bits from several nights. That latter fact is something I prefer as you get to see a more accurate representation of a live show rather than edited together highlights.  The lighting is perfect – nice use of colours and avoiding the use of the modern LED lights that tend to show up badly on film or in photos.  The sound too is crystal clear and mixed to perfection – something that we take for granted but not all live releases are as good as they should be.  So we’ve got great sound and lighting, and we’ve also got great quality video footage with multiple camera angles and it’s been edited together nicely – enough changes of angle to focus on the various band members at the relevant times but avoiding the radid changes of camera angles that sometimes make a live DVD hard to watch.

Moving on to the performance itself, the first thing that people might notice is the layout of the stage.  The rhythm section (drums, guitar, bass and keyboards) are all at the back of the stage (including Joe Bonamassa), with the horns to one side and leaving the front half of the stage for Beth Hart.  Joe Bonamassa definitely looks to be enjoying just one of the band in these shows rather than being out front and singing in his normal role as frontman.  Beth Hart moves around the stage and uses the space well. She interacts with the band members and also the crowd, whether she’s walking around the stage or sitting on the edge of the stage by the audience and puts in a superb performance.  For “chocolate Jesus” and “Baddest blues” Beth sits and plays piano near the front of the stage while singing.
Beth Hart’s vocals are absolutely superb – I’d definitely rate her as one of the best singers around at the moment, and with Joe Bonamassa putting in his usual high standard of performance on guitar alongside a band made up of highly talented musicians then you have music thats of an equally high standard to the vocals.  There’s a wide variety of music included in one show, ranging from Blues to Soul to Rock, and they are all handled with ease.

Having said earlier that the footage all came from one show, there is one track that didn’t come from the Amsterdam gig.  After the show ends you get the DVD credits, and while these are playing part of the screen shows “Antwerp Jam” which is pretty much what it says – it’s the band jamming during soundcheck before the Antwerp show, and is great to watch/listen to – finally something that makes it worth watching DVD credits all the way through.

The second DVD contains two documentaries.  Sometimes these sort of things on a DVD can be pretty dull but I found both of these to be really interesting.  It was interesting to see the preparations for the tour and also very surprising how little time they had to learn all the songs and rehearse before the first date on the tour.  All of the musicians involved are interviewed and it’s clear that they all thoroughly enjoyed the tour and want to do it again – even workaholic Joe Bonamassa who seems to have so many different projects was keen to do more shows and added a comment that next time they should probably do more shows so they cover the costs.  To me that suggests the tour (which was sold out) either broke even or made a loss, so they were doing it more for the love of it than to make money.  It’s also clear watching the documentary from some of the comments that Joe Bonamassa sees Beth Hart as the star while she see’s him as the star.  In reality they both play a critical role – Beth’s vocals are just fantastic but Joe’s superb guitar playing adds so much to it, and it’s the combination of the two that makes this so special.

A great release that gives you not only a fantastic concert but also plenty to watch in the documentaries that are on the second disc.  It’s only just March but this has to be a strong contender for the best live DVD of the year.

Highly recommended.

“Live in Amsterdam” will be released on CD, DVD and Blu-Ray on Monday 24th March 2014 via Provogue Records.

Track listing:

1. Amsterdam, Amsterdam!
2. Them There Eyes
3. Sinner’s Prayer
4. Can’t Let Go
5. For My Friends
6. Close to My Fire
7. Rhymes
8. Something’s Got a Hold On Me
9. Your Heart Is As Black As Night
10. Chocolate Jesus
11. Baddest Blues
12. Someday After a While (You’ll Be Sorry)
13. Well, Well
14. If I Tell You I Love You
15. See Saw
16. Strange Fruit
17. Miss Lady
18. I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know
19. Nutbush City Limits
20. I’d Rather Go Blind
21. Antwerp Jam