One year later, The Story of Sonny Boy Slim tour rolls on, once again reaching our home in Boston. Last Halloween, Gary Clark Jr brought a raucous, smoky show to House of Blues in Fenway and this past week he brought his band back to the larger Blue Hills Bank Pavilion for another take on his latest album’s offerings. On a beautiful late summer’s eve, the massively popular blues and r&b artist provided an equally stunning set to his last visit, albeit with a little more space for the crowd and for some extended jams (and probably a lot less Halloween costumes.)
Local group, the Tim Gearan Band, opened the show to a positive reception while the concertgoers itched for Clark’s brand of blues driven rock and roll. Clark took the stage to dark blue lighting and smoke, slinking out of the back corner before strapping on his guitar with a smirk under the brim of his hat. The band began the groove and things took off from there for the night. His band has remained stable since the bluesman broke onto the scene several years ago and this is fantastic news for any fan of live music that gets the chance to catch them as they only continue to gel more over the years. Johnny Bradley and Johnny Radelat form Clark’s fantastic rhythm section while King Zapata takes care of second guitar duties. The aesthetic of Zapata’s outfits and guitars usually match the wild licks he will occasionally step forward to perform during his own time in the spotlight.
Clark hit all corners of his catalogue (setlist below) and showed off a lot of pretty guitars in the process, including his signature Epiphone Casino. While Clark’s two major label albums span genres, darting between, blues, rock, r&b, and soul – his live shows put the focus where it inevitably belongs, howling guitar solos and crooning vocals. This most recent stop in Boston was no exception. Anytime Gary and company let loose, the crowd responded with loud applause (and often a cloud of smoke). Songs like “Bright Lights” and “When My Train Pulls In” easily span ten minutes a piece and give Clark and his road tested bandmates plenty of room to improvise and work off of each other’s talents. When the encore featuring “Train” was over the crowd wandered out into the night, smiles on their faces and ears ringing, almost certainly satisfied with the performance they had just witnessed.
The Story of Sonny Boy Slim is available everywhere now: iTunes, Spotify, Amazon
Check out our photos of the show and a video of Clark performing “The Healing,” from his most recent album, below.
