There’s a valid reason that guitarist Joe Bonamassa takes off his shades and changes from his shark skin suit to don sweats and a baseball camp when making his annual trip to the Baked Potato under the name “Rock Candy Funk Party”. With his longtime compatriots Tal Bergman/dr, Ron DeJesus/g, Mike Merritt/b and Renato Neto/key Joe B put on a 75 minute set before the overstuffed Potato and used elements of each word in the band to describe the alter ego of his musical muse.
As to the “Rock” part, the twin guitar lead of both Bonamassa and DeJesus made for some hard hitting heavyweight punches, as the chunky blues “Cubes Brick” did a full body surf over Bergman’s beat, while Bergman’s rata-tata-tat staccato hammering double-time drive was like an avalanche of energy for the 12 strings to sear over.
The “Candy” part included some spacey keyboard by Neto on the jazzy “We Want Groove” with Merritt’s lyrical and hip blues teaming with Neto’s pastoral synth to paint a lurking landscape for Bonamassa’s deliciously understated and “sotto” solo on the delectable “Token Ballad”.
“Funk” beats and grooves as in James Brown’s Famous Flames were in abundance as Merritt’s chain gang beat and Bergman’s supple wrist work dug a relentless pulse on the shoe shuffling “Spaztastic” before the latter gave a workshop on how to handle tom toms and bass drums, calling out the rain clouds before Bonamassa jumped back into with a thunderous chordal climax to close the set.
And, if you’ve seen Joe B at large theaters, like the Greek his casual demeanor with the cozy confines of the Baked Potato is as fun and fresh as it can get. From self deprecating remarks (“I’m the Crusty Crown of the blues”) to describing the team as “a struggling jazz band with nothing else to do”, Bonamassa spent the evening sounding rejuvenated by the club atmosphere, and the packed house departed in kind, enjoying the rock, candy, funk and party served up on this Christmas season.
Besides RCFP finishing up on Sunday, upcoming events at the Baked Potato include Michael Landau 12/11, Mike Stern 12/13-14, Lynne Fiddmont/12/19 and John Daversa Big Band 12/19-22