show review
warciple Fri Oct 10 '08
461
House of Blues, Cleveland,
Rank: Posted: Thu Oct 23, '08 10:55 am
I agree with others that the volume may have been a tad loud for so small a venue. Recent tours saw Joe and company playing at the slightly larger Agora down the street from HoB; maybe that place was already booked. But I'm guessing the booking at HoB has more to do with LiveNation, which promotes through HoB, and I see Joe is hitting a few of those on the tour. I also empathize with those who found standing on the floor to be tiring / burdensome. At the Cleveland HoB, the balcony is definitely the way to go. Sure, nothing beats being up close--but you pay for it by getting mashed in the crowd. One of my first visits to this venue was a Steve Vai show in 2005. I took my wife along, and she couldn't take standing. I agreed that it sucked, and we left after six or seven songs. For Joe however, I was able to enter early and grab a barstool, which allowed me to actually enjoy the performance in relative comfort. I enjoyed "Ghosts," which I guess is only available via iTunes. I went to download it, but it's not available by itself--you have to buy the entire Prof Satch album, and since I already have it, I wasn't about to spend another 9.99 for a single tune. Hopefully it'll find release somewhere else. Saint Joe rules.

jaguar5150 Fri Oct 10 '08
461
House of Blues, Cleveland,
Rank: 10 Posted: Thu Oct 16, '08 11:40 am

Well, one thing's for sure, next time I'll be buying the seats in the balcony. Not because it is bad on the floor, but because apparently my wife and I are getting old and these feet can't take a day at the museum followed by a concert! I was I'd say about 5 or 6 rows back for the Mountain opener, but couldn't take standing any longer. We had to go out and take a break, and, of course. lost our place.

The performance however, was simply perfect. I don't think I've heard a better sounding show. The bass drum hit loudly and precise. Joe's fingers moved with swiftness and made it look too easy!

Even though didn't get to see the act up close, all that was made up for in meeting him after the show. I was able to ask him about the project with Sammy, Michael and Chad. He said it was going well, and that they'd be returning to the studio after the tour to finish up the album. I cannot wait for that to come to fruition!! Also coming out after the show were Stu and Jeff! I think it is awesome that the guys can take a few minutes after the show and chat with the fans and sign a couple items and snap a photo.

I'll be back for sure guys, so please, please keep churning out the music!

bigrocco1978 Fri Oct 10 '08
461
House of Blues, Cleveland,
Rank: 10 Posted: Tue Oct 14, '08 5:54 am

Leslie West was awesome, Monutain can still rock after all these years. A little rough around the edges, but still they were great.

Joe was stellar as usual. I do agree somewhat about the sound quality. From where I was, near the stage, the first 3 or 4 songs were really distorted/loud, but it seems after that they made some adjustments. I loved hearing Time Machine and Stu's solo was awesome as usual. Thanks Joe for a great time. See you back in Cleveland soon. Go Browns!!!!!!

majortomjs Fri Oct 10 '08
461
House of Blues, Cleveland,
Rank: 8 Posted: Sat Oct 11, '08 11:32 am

I think that the show was good. It probably could have been better, as everything can be improved, but I'm not going to complain or claim it was terrible. From where I was I could see the band with excellent clarity, and nothing was very bad visually. The sound was good and I didn't feel it was bad, but my parents claimed it was too distorted. I didn't really notice anything wrong with the sound, during or after the show, but there is still a good chance that it was too loud for the House of Blues. If anything about the show was bad, it was the venue and not Joe or Mountain. The venue was very small and there could have been some bad sounding areas because of the size of the place and the design.

As far as the technique of the music, Joe played a near perfect, if not perfect, show. While the audio may have been too loud for many, he hit the notes right. I found Mountain making a few mistakes, but that happens to the best of us, so there's no room for complaint. However, Mountain's part of the gig seemed much more like a new band starting out than a band which has existed for years so I was disappointed. Overall, it was a good show, I got to see Joe in person and it wasn't too loud for where I was standing, but it seems that Joe should be playing some larger places in the area.

scuttlebuttin13 Fri Oct 10 '08
461
House of Blues, Cleveland,
Rank: 10 Posted: Sat Oct 11, '08 9:22 am

That was the best concert i had ever been to. Mountain was great even though i only knew Mississippi Queen but anyway they were awesome. Corky threw a drum stick and i caught it but some other dude caught it too so we fought for a couple seconds and he got it cuz my moms camera about fell and broke so i had to get it.

Joe was amazing, first time ive ever seen him live. He didn't miss a single note. there was a guy in front of me and my friend bobbin his head and dancin and looking like a big nerd so us and some people around us were dancin like him, makin fun of him and stuff, it was so funny. Me and my friend met Joe after the show and he was signed my shirt of him that my dad made and Joe thought it was a sweet shirt and my friend gave Joe the link to his youtube and joe said he'd make sure he'd take a look at it. i also got Galen's autograph and he was pretty cool. that was a fun concert