ZRock Eric Clapton Summer 2004 Tour Concert Reviews
Photo by Joseph Garnett Jr/St. Petersburg Times
Turning pain into joy
Eric Clapton, scarred but musically sizzling, still sounds fresh at 59 as he lets his guitar do the talking.
By TOM ZUCCO
St. Petersburg Times Staff Writer
Published June 15, 2004
TAMPA – Nostalgia, Eric Clapton once said, is actually Latin for ’return to pain.
Most times, he’s probably right.
But not Monday night.
On the fifth stop of a 29-city tour, in front of 11,041 fans at the St. Pete Times Forum, with every ounce of energy he had to give, the legend that is EC rode again.
The first hint that this was going to be something special happened early – the moment Clapton closed his eyes, hunched over his multicolored Fender and soared into the guitar solo on Let It Rain, his opening number. He took the song to places it hadn’t been before, and it was all uphill from there.
Dressed in a simple black shirt, baggy white trousers, desert boots and wire rim glasses, he looked at times like your friendly neighborhood chemistry teacher. But even at 59, performing concerts night after night, the groove is still there.
Of course, he had some pretty talented hired hands to help: Billy Preston on keyboards, Nathan East on bass, Steve Gadd on drums and Doyle Bramhall II on guitar. And vocalists Michelle John and Sharon White filled in any gaps without overwhelming the star.
After Hoochie Coochie Man, Walk Out and I Want a Little Girl, Clapton bounded into I Shot the Sheriff. Only this time, he dropped a nuclear bomb on the poor man. With his fingers racing up and down the neck of his guitar, Clapton bent notes, strained them and did things to them that might be considered cruel and unusual in some states. He coaxed sounds out of those little strands of wire that seemed physically impossible.
And then, as if to say, That was nice. Now check this out, he strapped on an acoustic guitar, switched into low gear, and did several Robert Johnson songs from his most recent CD, Me and Mr. Johnson. His extended versions of Me and the Devil Blues and Milkcow’s Calf Blues paved the way for Judgment Day, Kind Hearted Woman, Got to Get Better.
As usual, Clapton let his guitars do the talking; he never said more than Thank you to the audience after each song.
After Badge and Wonderful Tonight, as show neared its end, Clapton gave the crowd what it was hungry for. He has performed Layla probably more than any another assorted love song, and how he still managed to make it sizzle and burn with an extended solo, how he turned a well worn standard into something fresh, can only be a tribute to his genius.
Clapton has won or shared 17 Grammys; he’s a triple inductee into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame (solo and with Cream and the Yardbirds). He has evolved and yet remained among the best guitar players who has walked the planet.
He also is terribly scarred. He was raised by grandparents; until he was 9, he thought his mother was his sister. His son died after a fall from a building. He was addicted to alcohol and heroin.
That, he has said, led him to the blues. And to performing. To making people happy. To turning pain into joy.
Monday night, after finishing his 2-hour set with Sunshine of Your Love and Mojo, he had done that. And then some.
* * *
Robert Randolph and the Family Band set the table perfectly for Clapton, and for those who didn’t know who the 25-year-old from Orange, N.J. is – and there were many in the crowd who seemed a little unsure – they know now. Nobody, certainly not some relative unknown who plays a 13-string pedal steel guitar, can do justice to Jimi Hendrix.
Yet that’s precisely what Randolph did. With his cousins Marcus Randolph and Danyel Morgan providing the drums and bass respectively, Randolph took the audience on extended jams – places where Sly and the Family Stone never dared to go.
Clapton exudes controlled versatility
By Charles Passy
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Published Thursday, June 17, 2004
Before Eric Clapton made his way to the Office Depot Center stage Tuesday night, pedal-steel guitarist Robert Randolph warmed up the near-capacity crowd, playing one loud, libidinous and free-flowing tune after another. At one point, he got so lost in the music that he kicked his chair away, almost turning it into a dangerous projectile.
By contrast, Clapton, dressed in his usual working-man’s outfit of jeans and a casual shirt, engaged in no such histrionics. He simply went about his business, sometimes maintaining a poker face, sometimes allowing for a smile.
And the music he made was, in a sense, all about control. It didn’t lack intensity, but it also didn’t allow for excess. He probably played half the notes that Randolph did, but each one counted far, far more.
That is, of course, why he’s Eric Clapton.
The blues-influenced guitar legend’s tightly coiled virtuosity was apparent at nearly every turn during his two-hour performance. Early in the evening, he offered a version of his Bob Marley cover, I Shot the Sheriff, that had a sunny, infectious quality. In the middle of the show, he switched to acoustic mode, playing selections from his new Robert Johnson tribute album, Me and Mr. Johnson, that were the blues as they were meant to be: stripped-down and telling. (Unlike so many contemporary blues-inspired rock and pop artists, Clapton doesn’t seem to feel the need to channel his inner soul man. He just plays with soul. Trust us, there’s a difference.)
And by the end? Clapton let er rip, playing a trio of his most raucous songs — Layla (the hard-core version), Cocaine, Sunshine of Your Love — without sparing volume or vigor. (And he did a nice, gritty job with the vocals, too.) But even Clapton at his most invigorating is a man who understands the architecture of a tune. His jams had a clear sense of direction; there was never a wasted note.
A plentiful band did solid work supporting Clapton, and occasionally stealing the spotlight from him. Guitarist Doyle Bramhall II was the best of the bunch, though his facial expressions sometimes distracted from his playing. He should learn to follow Clapton’s stately, reserved lead.
Photo by Ron Cannon/whereiseric.com
Clapton presents crowd-pleasing encore
By Gene Triplett
The Oklahoman
Published June 11, 2004
The sultan of stinging Stratocaster was back on the road Wednesday night, offering something old, something borrowed and plenty that was blue, but very little that was new at the Ford Center.
But there were no complaints from the 15,000 fans who braved a torrential spring downpour to worship at the altar of the baby boomers acknowledged guitar god, Eric Clapton.
After greeting his dripping flock with an appropo show opener, Let It Rain, he rewarded them with plenty of the familiar hits they wanted to hear, ranging from his true halcyon days with Cream and Derek and the Dominos through his 34-year solo career as a crowd-pleasing Top 40 titan.
Looking supremely laid-back in a loose-fitting, short-sleeved blue shirt and jeans, and showing a little gray around his stubbled jowls as he gazed owlishly into the middle distance through wire- rimmed glasses, the venerable virtuoso cut loose with effortless, string-bending ease on the Willie Dixon classic Hoochie Coochie Man, then took a soulful mid-tempo shuffle through Bob Dylan’s Walk Out in the Rain (another nod to the weather), aided smoothly by second guitarist Doyle Bramhall II on searing slide, lively keyboardists Billy Preston and Chris Stainton and sweet-sounding backup singers Michelle John and Sharon White.
His obligatory run through I Shot the Sheriff, the Bob Marley reggae-rouser that made him millions, sounded surprisingly fresh, delivered reloaded with a new guitar intro and higher- caliber soloing than the original radio single.
But the highlight came when Clapton, Bramhall and bassist Nathan East sat in chairs at center stage with acoustic insturments for a tribute to the star’s shining inspiration, bluesman Robert Johnson, first with Clapton’s wonderfully woeful vocal interpretation of Me and the Devil Blues, followed by the bright, bawdy and upbeat they’re Red Hot and a down-and-dirty, plugged-in plow-through of Milkcow’s Calf Blues.
The rolling and tumbling gospel grit of If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day and the steamy slow-blooz of Kind Hearted Woman Blues rounded out the interlude of song which can also be heard on Clapton’s latest album, Me and Mr. Johnson.
Then it was back to the radio tracks, for a jazzier version of the once raw and wrenching Have You Ever Loved a Woman, a crowning achievement from his Dominos days that was watered down a bit on this rainy night with extended and showy organ and piano solos from Preston and Stainton, respectively.
Badge, a Cream powerhouse co-written with his old friend George Harrison, seemed a bit tarnished by a lack of enthusiasm and, of course, the conspicuous absence of the magnificent, chiming solo Harrison supplied on the original recording.
But everyone seems to love Clapton’s latter- day love ballads, and when he slipped into the sentimental Wonderful Tonight, many a devoted fan was seen holding a cell phone in the air, so that absent friends and lovers could share in the bliss.
The predictable inclusion of FM staple Layla featured some sizzling dual-guitar interplay between Clapton and Bramhall reminiscent of the Clapton-Duane Allman juggernaut of the Dominos, and a righteous reading of J.J. Cale’s Cocaine had the crowd shouting along revivalist style.
Still, Clapton deemed them worthy of only one encore, which included another Cream classic, Sunshine of Your Love, with East taking on former Cream bassist Jack Bruce’s vocal parts rather splendidly, while opening act Robert Randolph sat in on this tune and a raunchy reworking of Muddy Waters Got My Mojo Workin, with pedal steel licks that threatened to run Clapton and Bramhall off the stage.
It made one wish Randolph and his Family Band had been alloted more time at the top of the evening, having given blistering performances of their own Allman Brothers-style jam, Nobody, Curtis Mayfield’s soul-stirring People Get Ready and an instrumental torching of Jimi Hendrix Voodoo Child.
Guitar did the talking at Clapton’s NLR show
BY JACK W. HILL
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Published June 13, 2004
Like the proper Englishman that he is, Eric Clapton gave his fans what they expected Friday night at Alltel Arena. He gave them precise, searing runs on his guitar in a 112-minute show, but it was only his guitar that did the talking, with conversational interludes nothing more than the occasional thank you to a packed house of 10,836 that clearly adored him.
Perhaps it’s asking too much of a veteran entertainer to share some sort of humorous tidbits, but it’s also a shame that a performer could not take a moment to craft some sort of betweensong anecdote so that those who have paid $60 and more for a ticket could leave feeling a tad less, well, clinical.
That said, Clapton cannot be faulted for the quality of his work, as he repeatedly brought the crowd to its collective feet to better appreciate his deft fingerwork.
Dressed simply in a blue shirt and light-colored pants and wearing a few days stubble, Clapton walked out on stage and got right down to business with Let It Rain, which involved the forcible extraction of many a hot note from his favored guitar, a colorful model with a patchwork quilt design.
Keyboardist Billy Preston sounded great on Hootchie Coochie Man, and several songs later, the intelligent pacing of the show was evident, thanks to the great build-up that preceded I Shot the Sheriff, followed by an interlude of several acoustic selections, which featured Clapton and his guitar sidekick, Doyle Bramhall II, who both sat down, as if to emphasize the back-porch vibes of the songs.
they’re Red Hot, one of the Robert Johnson songs on the newest Clapton CD, Me and Mr. Johnson, was the clear highlight of the seated portion of Clapton’s show, and in a less rigid world of radio, the song would likely be a hit.
When the chairs went away, Clapton poured it on with Badge, but then came the cloying Wonderful Tonight, although it was a crowd favorite for some, with couples being shown dancing, on the large video screens.
Layla, the electric version, followed, as if to redeem Clapton’s rock credentials, and fans loved hearing a song that never grows old for some, although the follow-up song, Cocaine, could surely be omitted from concerts, especially since Clapton devotes energies to a treatment center for fans of cocaine. Have You Ever Loved a Woman was nicely done, thanks to alternating flashy work by keyboardist Chris Stainton, guitarist Bramhall and keyboardist Preston. Clapton took the fourth solo to finish the song out in fine form.
Opening act Robert Randolph & The Family Band left the crowd begging for an encore, which never happens with opening acts, who are normally merely tolerated. A virtuoso on pedal steel guitar, Randolph soared to new heights on his instrument, seeming to float out of the seated position he was in a couple of times.
It was hard to tell where one frenzied song ended and another began in his band’s 35-minute set, and some of the songs were instrumental, but he did include nice versions of the soul classic, People Get Ready and Jimi Hendrix’s Voodoo Chile.
It was no surprise when a pedal steel guitar was set up after Clapton briefly left the stage before returning for an encore that featured Randolph wailing away on the two-song finale, Sunshine of Your Love and Got My Mojo Working. The youthful enthusiasm of Randolph seemed to create the biggest smile of the evening for veteran blues-rocker Clapton, a man who obviously enjoys his work and goes about it in an intense, albeit gentlemanly British fashion.
Photo by Chuck Credo IV
Clapton’s New Orleans show a totally unique experience
By Chuck Credo IV
New Orleans
(fan review courtesy of whereseric.com)
When you sit down and think about it… what makes an EC show GREAT?! Many people write in and say how well he is playing these days (and he is)… or about the band being so talented (which they are)… .but I always feel is it is the combination of all of these… plus a little special magic… that ALWAYS make for a GREAT night with EC.
Unlike many other stops in the US, Robert Randolph was NOT the opening act. The task fell to Texas blues legend Jimmy Vaughan to kick off the night… .and what a great job he did. The nawlins crowd ate him up as many in attendance had just seen him a few weeks ago at the House Of Blues here in New Orleans.When Vaughan was done, I noticed a problem with the stage setup… .where was BILLY PRESTON’s Hammond organ?? Looks like the Hammond was being set up over by Chris… As the band took the stage, it was confirmed… No Billy Preston! After quick speculation, I came to the conclusion that he may be attending services for Ray Charles (who Billy first started to play for back in the 1960s). I was really looking forward to Billy’s smiling Hammond organ riffs… but let’s see how the boys cover this big hole in the music terrain… ..
Eric walked onstage with Crash #3, white shirt, blue jeans. As he tore into Let It Rain, I was floored by the overall groove of this band as opposed to the structured jazz stylings of the reptile group. EC’s best move in the past five years was to get Doyle Bramhall in the group… .I am sure he is responsible for Eric’s new found fire for playing. Chris took over all the keyboard parts and covered everything with true class and style. Steve and Nathan were on the money… as always.
The two backup singers have GOT to GO. Being in the music biz myself, there is quite a lot to be said for presentation. While Eric has never been one for a BIG SHOW theme, he and the band at least have a simple presentable image. The two girls… while they did sing well … ..1.) looked horrible, fashion-wise. 2.) totally lacking in coordination for stage performance. Ok ok ok… yes I am use to Katie and Tessa’s performances… .but a lot can be said for simple image presentation during a performance… and these two girls had NONE. They were making up dance moves as the night went on and NEVER got them right! … .and I also agree that the Hootchie Cootchie background vocals also need to be left alone. This paragraph represents my only complaints of the night.
So… as I said before… what makes Eric’s New Orleans performance unique from his other shows thus far? The absence of Billy Preston had an impact on the band as you could see as they came on stage. What resulted is about DOUBLE the amount of EC solos. Wherever there would be a spot where Billy would take a solo, EC was there. The solos were TOTALLY stretched out to cover for Billys absence. New Orleans was treated to a night of EC playing the guitar… for EXTENDED periods at a time. My belief is now… give Eric enough space to build a solo… and he will take you over the moon. Quite often the band limits the timing of the solos where they will be a start and a finish (maybe two times through). On Saturday night, those rules were off and the extended jams were a plenty!
As reported, his playing IS better than ever. Folks, I have been watching EC live for the past ten years. This was my forth live concert of Eric’s. You can BELIEVE what you are reading… the man’s playing is top notch… on par with some of the great points of his career. His choice of a lot of DEREK AND THE DOMINOES material allows the interplay between Doyle and Eric to bring the band to new heights (Andy Fairweather… for all his talents… was not capable of this). Let It Rain, Got To Get Better In A Little While, Have You Ever Loved A Woman, Layla… .FOUR Domino gems. Eric’s playing is faithful to the quality of the original songs. His passion for them is present in his fantastic solos.
We did have some EC interaction with the crowd. From my floor fourth row seat, a group behind me made a sign that said Thanks, Eric and stood up during Got To Get Better… .Eric read it during the intro and smiled. He also was laughing with Nathan East during Wonderful Tonight. … When you play a ballad like Wonderful Tonight in New Orleans… you are going to get dancers. Couples stood up in their seats and started to dance, while others took to the isles. During they’re Red Hot many folks stood up, waving their handkerchiefs … ALMOST starting a second line which would have been great. I wish I had brought an umbrella, I would have led it off… ..**if you don’t understand what I’m saying, don’t worry. It’s all Naturally Nawlins! … but after the acoustic set, the dance party was on. The crowd was dancing through Got To Get Better, Badge, and Wonderful Tonight before giving their full attention to the band for Layla … .and also in true New Orleans style, we had some line dancers in the front section during Cocaine … .classic!
After a TOP NOTCH set of playing (I Shot The Sheriff tore the roof off, Judgment Day vocals were OUTSTANDING, I want a Little girl without a doubt for Brother Ray Charles… stunning!)… .it was time for the encore. Sunshine of your Love… .Had the entire arena singing the chorus which brought back memories of Paul McCartney in the same room singing Hey Jude with 25,000 people.
Then came the REAL magic… .Jimmie Vaughan’s matchless amp (which went out on him during his set due to a blown tube)… .was fixed and set up ready to go. The fabulous Thunderbird strutted on stage with his sunburst Strat. My thoughts were that this would be a fantastic version of Got My Mojo Workin … ..but for the THIRD time for Eric In New Orleans… he CHANGED the encore from the rest of the tour. The band launches into a SPECTACULAR SWEET HOME CHICAGO … ..as the solos began… Doyle, Clapton, Vaughn and East lined up in a single file line jamming it out… .just like at ALPINE VALLEY that fateful night. I could have kicked myself for not bringing my camera. There were smiles all around on stage as these legends duked it out allowing New Orleans to have it’s own Guitar Festival. Once again, the crowd was on their feet… singing the chorus and dancing in the isles.
As the jam came to an end… the entire band had a standing ovation by the entire arena. All of the circumstances surrounding the show… No Billy, Extended Solos, Fantastic Singing Voice, and Jimmie Vaughan for that FANTASTIC encore… made Clapton’s New Orleans show… ONCE AGAIN… a totally unique experience. We were treated to some of the best guitar playing possible during the show… and those encores put us OVER the top.
Big congrats also to WHERE’s ERIC for coming along as one of the best fan clubs out there. How wonderful it has been to see the work pay off by this group over the past ten years +. I love the ad in the tour program.
So to wrap things up… .I have my spray paint ready… .a famous Eric Clapton slogan may end up on a few buildings in town!! Yeah, you heard me!! While I am joking, his performance last night has rewarded him this classic title again… ..Clapton is God. Don’t argue it. Just enjoy it!
Photo by Jon M. Fletcher/The Times-Union
The legend is alive
Eric Clapton plays at the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena
By EYDER PERALTA
The Times-Union
Published June 17, 2004
There’s something inherently holy in the way Eric Clapton plays guitar. Even when he’s shredding on the hard rock of his youth, his guitar has a tone that’s pure. Every first note he plays resounds like the yell of Etta James on At Last.
He wasn’t even on stage, when his presence was made clear Wednesday at the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena. The first phrases of Let It Rain made the sold-out place rumble, and that’s all you need to become enthralled by Eric Clapton’s legend.
What’s nice about Clapton is that he’s still going strong. He’s not like all those other 70s rockers who appear washed up on stage. Clapton can still play and his music is just as relevant today as it was back then.
Or maybe he just makes it seem like it is, because even when he played the blues, he brought back the urgency with which his hero Robert Johnson sang them. We don’t live in the same times, and Clapton most certainly has not had the same experience as Johnson, but he made those blues about his love, or lack thereof. He sang Hoochie Coochie Man with a coquettish swagger and Me and the Devil Blues with all the sullen pleasure a man with his talent gets from dropping riffs that feel so good they must be bad.
And there’s no caveat with his music: It was good throughout and he even made sure to spread the blues across the setlist and end with a furious attack of hits: Wonderful Tonight, Layla, Cocaine and Sunshine of Your Love.
The most important thing with Clapton, though, is that he plays just what he needs to play. Even the solos are kept to phrases that are entertaining and eloquent.
The old blues legend is that Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil in order to find within himself the talent to play the way he did. He was said to have been poisoned by an angry girlfriend and that he hissed and crawled on all fours to his death, spitting out these final words, I pray that my redeemer will come to take me from my grave.
On Wednesday, Robert Johnson was alive.
Photo by Kimberly Smith/Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Clapton shows why he’s rock divinity
By JON WATERHOUSE
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published June 19, 2004
As the lights popped up after opening act Jimmie Vaughn, 15-year-old Marshall Watson of Woodstock quickly stood up from his seat in Philips Arena with sign in hand. Clapton Is God, it read, echoing a phrase made popular during Eric Clapton’s rise to fame during the 1960s.
Some people have given me a hard time tonight, said Marshall, who came with parents in tow to Friday night’s Eric Clapton concert. But going to a Clapton show is like seeing God.
That’s quite an expectation for the British guitar hero to live up to during his fourth decade in the public eye. But for the sea of fans in the audience, Slowhand seemed to rise to the occasion.
From the beginning strains of Let It Rain, Clapton delved into a varied set, tossing in deeper cuts with radio-friendly favorites. Walk Out in the Rain, from the 1978 Backless album, was soon followed by an extended romp through I Shot the Sheriff, his popular cover of the Bob Marley classic.
But the singer seemed most comfortable during a five-song run-through of songs from his latest release, Me and Mr. Johnson, a tribute to blues legend Robert Johnson. With his Nike-shrouded feet vigorously tapping along, Clapton looked more akin to a tortured bluesman than an aging rock star.
He had so much pressure put on him after his Cream days, it’s taken him 30 years to rediscover himself, said fan David Wilson, 51, of Atlanta. And now he has the power to do it.
Clapton’s true strength, however, became powerfully evident as a barrage of hits closed the show: the epic rock of Badge, the laid-back seduction of Wonderful Tonight and the sprawling jam of Layla.
After a nod to 70s indulgence with Cocaine and a flashback to the 60s with Sunshine of Your Love, the hellhounds snapped back onto his trail with a bluesy rave-up of Sweet Home Chicago.
From his blistering solos to his weathered growl, the evidence of Clapton’s divinity quickly became clear. Whether or not he’s truly God incarnate, his enduring talent may just be proof that a higher power has a hand in Rock N Roll. A slowhand, that is.
Photo by Alan Devorsey/The Greenville News
Clapton fans bask in blues
By Donna Isbell Walker
The Greenville News
Published June 20, 2004
Eric Clapton showcased his bluesy side Saturday night at the Bi-Lo Center.
From Willie Dixon to Robert Johnson, the originators of the blues were channeled through Clapton’s guitar and voice in a nearly two-hour show that also featured plenty of the singer’s best-known hits.
Opening with his 1970 hit, Let It Rain, Clapton kept the audience hooked from the moment he strolled on-stage strumming his guitar. For much of the show, the crowd sat and listened to each song, then leapt to their feet in cheers after the last note.
For fans Mike and Tammy Dixon of Tryon, the show represented a chance to see an artist who personifies the term.
It’s the consistency in his music, Tammy Dixon said. It’s not just a good hit now and then; it’s artistic music.
The set included blues songs like (I’m Your) Hoochie Coochie Man, and from his new Robert Johnson tribute album, such songs as Me and the Devil Blues and Milkcow’s Calf Blues. For the encore, Clapton brought back show opener Jimmie Vaughan to play on an incendiary version of Johnson’s Sweet Home Chicago.
He didn’t neglect the hits either, performing songs like Layla, with its screaming guitars giving way to piano, and a rocking version of Cocaine.
A set piece of the show was I Shot the Sheriff, with a different intro than the recorded version. Random cheers could be heard as it dawned on fans which song it was, with a huge cheer when it became apparent to everyone.
Clapton added a slight Latin feel to the main guitar solo, closing his eyes and moving his head side to side until he became almost one with his instrument. The intensity continued to build until the end of the song. The standing ovation lasted a full minute.
Fleet-Fingered Clapton Gets Down and Dirty
By Dave McKenna
The Washington Post
Published Wednesday, June 23, 2004
The fingers are quicker than the eye. Eric Clapton’s still are, anyway. During the 59-year-old legend’s show Monday at the MCI Center, there was little use trying to match his digits movement along the fretboard with the notes coming through the house PA.
In a blue button-down shirt, bluejeans and really clean Nikes, Clapton looked a lot better than somebody with his personal bio, so full of drug and booze addictions and personal tragedies, should look. The tones he plucked, picked and/or bent out of the strings on his designer Stratocaster — which, like so many of Clapton’s axes, is available for purchase via auction at Christie’s — were beautifully dirty.
Clapton opened with Let It Rain from his 1970 solo debut, as jangly a tune as he’s ever put to vinyl. Doyle Bramhall II, the second guitarist in Clapton’s eight-piece ensemble, took the night’s first solo. Then Clapton went on the first of many loud, long runs to clarify the band’s pecking order.
One could quibble with the order of Clapton’s set list, which seemed designed to rein in the crowd’s enthusiasm until very late in the show. His solo to end a syncopated rendition of Bob Marley’s I Shot the Sheriff, for example, had the crowd standing and screaming. But Clapton then sat down and went unplugged for a mini-set of deep blues (including Me and the Devil Blues, they’re Red Hot and Milkcow’s Calf Blues ) from his most recent CD, Me and Mr. Johnson, a Robert Johnson tribute. The picking was precise and the tribute sincere, but 12-bar acoustic blues are far better suited to a saloon than to an arena. Clapton also killed some momentum by following a raw and raucous version of Badge, a tune George Harrison wrote for Cream, with Wonderful Tonight, the wimp-rock classic from 1977’s Slowhand LP.
But the set also contained some pleasant surprises. Clapton dug deep for Walk Out in the Rain, a Bob Dylan song he had recorded for 1978’s Backless, and Got to Get Better in a Little While, one of the lesser-known tunes from his Derek and the Dominoes days. The iconic piece from that period, Layla, probably bores Clapton by now. But he delivered a version as heavy and heartfelt as possible, compelling many fans old enough to know better to strap on air guitars and try to ape one of the most famous and fleet guitar breaks in rock history. Again, there was little use trying to match their digits movement with the notes coming through the house PA.
A guitar master class at Pepsi
By MICHAEL ECK
Albany Times Union
Published Thursday, June 24, 2004
ALBANY — Eric Clapton came to play guitar at Pepsi Arena on Wednesday night and he did just that. Over the years Clapton has refashioned himself as a singer and a pop star but he remains Slowhand at heart, the man who inspired London graffiti artists to proclaim Clapton is God on bare brick walls in the 60s.
He kicked off his almost two-hour show with a rousing version of Let It Rain that found him in fine form vocally and stunning form on the six-string.
Clapton invented half of the hard rock cliches in every picker’s book, but he still manages to arrange them in fresh and inventive ways. When he laid into a repetitive lick at the end of the tune, it soared, wrapping itself around the beat like the rain itself.
If he wasn’t quite so dazzling on the basic blues of Hoochie Coochie Man and Have You Ever Loved a Woman he still pumped out tone to die for.
Clapton has recently paid tribute to his prime influence, Robert Johnson, with an album full of the legendary bluesman’s songs. The record, Me and Mr. Johnson is frankly a pretty tame affair that does nothing to top or even equal Johnson and does little to extend Clapton’s legacy.
Onstage, however, he found some of the fire that fueled Johnson.
they’re Red Hot took a shuffle beat to town and back again, and found Clapton letting the band do most of the work while he sang with a fervor. Guitarist Doyle Bramhall II offered peppy slide work on the tune, too.
All bets were off, however, when Clapton slipped on a slide himself. The two men, sitting nearly knee to knee, tore into Milkcow’s Calf Blues and If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day.
The latter boasts one of the most delightfully evil riffs ever put to wax and Clapton and Bramhall jumped all over it. Clapton’s solo in Kind-Hearted Woman was possessed, too, moving from swampy, finger-picked licks up to full intensity.
When Clapton hit the homestretch of hits — Badge, Wonderful Tonight, Layla, Cocaine — he seemed to go on autopilot, but he still lit up fans who were looking for nostalgia as much as nuance.
Sacred steel guitar phenom Robert Randolph opened the show with a blazing set that proved in no uncertain terms why his band is one of the hottest acts on the road in America today.
The band knocked out a sizzling instrumental take of Jimi Hendrix’s Voodoo Chile at the Pepsi, as well as offering a fine reading of Curtis Mayfield’s People Get Ready.
Randolph also joined Clapton’s band for a show-closing encore of Got My Mojo Working.
A guitar master class at Pepsi
By MICHAEL ECK
Albany Times Union
Published Thursday, June 24, 2004
ALBANY — Eric Clapton came to play guitar at Pepsi Arena on Wednesday night and he did just that. Over the years Clapton has refashioned himself as a singer and a pop star but he remains Slowhand at heart, the man who inspired London graffiti artists to proclaim Clapton is God on bare brick walls in the 60s.
He kicked off his almost two-hour show with a rousing version of Let It Rain that found him in fine form vocally and stunning form on the six-string.
Clapton invented half of the hard rock cliches in every picker’s book, but he still manages to arrange them in fresh and inventive ways. When he laid into a repetitive lick at the end of the tune, it soared, wrapping itself around the beat like the rain itself.
If he wasn’t quite so dazzling on the basic blues of Hoochie Coochie Man and Have You Ever Loved a Woman he still pumped out tone to die for.
Clapton has recently paid tribute to his prime influence, Robert Johnson, with an album full of the legendary bluesman’s songs. The record, Me and Mr. Johnson is frankly a pretty tame affair that does nothing to top or even equal Johnson and does little to extend Clapton’s legacy.
Onstage, however, he found some of the fire that fueled Johnson.
they’re Red Hot took a shuffle beat to town and back again, and found Clapton letting the band do most of the work while he sang with a fervor. Guitarist Doyle Bramhall II offered peppy slide work on the tune, too.
All bets were off, however, when Clapton slipped on a slide himself. The two men, sitting nearly knee to knee, tore into Milkcow’s Calf Blues and If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day.
The latter boasts one of the most delightfully evil riffs ever put to wax and Clapton and Bramhall jumped all over it. Clapton’s solo in Kind-Hearted Woman was possessed, too, moving from swampy, finger-picked licks up to full intensity.
When Clapton hit the homestretch of hits — Badge, Wonderful Tonight, Layla, Cocaine — he seemed to go on autopilot, but he still lit up fans who were looking for nostalgia as much as nuance.
Sacred steel guitar phenom Robert Randolph opened the show with a blazing set that proved in no uncertain terms why his band is one of the hottest acts on the road in America today.
The band knocked out a sizzling instrumental take of Jimi Hendrix’s Voodoo Chile at the Pepsi, as well as offering a fine reading of Curtis Mayfield’s People Get Ready.
Randolph also joined Clapton’s band for a show-closing encore of Got My Mojo Working.
Clapton blues, mighty and moody, at Wachovia
By A.D. Amorosi
Philadephia Inquirer
The blues came to Wachovia Center Saturday night, provided, in several shades, by guitarist Eric Clapton and Robert Randolph and the Family Band.
For Newark’s Sacred pedal-steel-flailing Randolph, this meant a foot-stomping epiphany: greasy gospel and brusque husky blues filled with globs of Hammond organ, hard shuffling beats, and Randolph’s thunderingly electric slides. Seated or standing, Randolph was a whirling dervish, a blue blur.
British-born Clapton was Randolph’s opposite. Still and stately, Clapton’s blues seemed an insular entreaty, a bedeviled sadness bottled up within bottleneck runs and weary whinings. Clapton, a man with his own share of demons, took on Robert Johnson with growlingly poetic, knowing grace and polite reverence. Johnson’s blue-black bible of soul-stealing prose and crotchety, contagious musicality was perfect for Clapton’s scuffed-soulful voice and blunt, poignant guitar solos.
With bottleneck bursts shared by guitarist Doyle Bramhall II, Johnson’s detritus was neatly dispatched with despair and respect, be it acoustic (the slow Me and the Devil Blues , the fleet jazz-jiving they’re Red Hot ), or electrically charged on the mangy, yodeled Milkcow’s Calf Blues.
Though Bramhall gave him a run for his money during his fuzzy, funky solo on Have You Ever Loved a Woman, Clapton had an overflow of red-running mojo for a guy with pricey taste in haircuts and wristwatches. His rattled, lowered-octave croon on (I’m Your) Hoochie Coochie Man, the depth of rage and avarice lent to I Shot the Sheriff (from slim pickings to body-heaving roar, Clapton’s best guitar solo), the clipped snarl given to a chugging Sunshine of Your Love – these were signs of Clapton’s personal apocalypse.
It would have been nice if other Clapton classics had held the same baleful blues power. The listless Layla and the turgid Wonderful Tonight were blanched and rushed. Playing with the devil takes it out of a man. But Clapton’s quiet, determined passion still won out.
Photo courtesy NY Post
Don’t Fret: Clapton’s Mojo is Still Workin
By DAN AQUILANTE
New York Post
Published June 30, 2004
YOU don’t have to suffer to sing the blues, you have to survive, and that’s what Eric Clapton has done in a career that’s spanned five decades.
At Madison Square Garden Monday, he played a towering concert that never mentioned the loves he’s lost from women to his son.
There was never a word about the problems that led to his addiction to booze and drugs, or any of the other miseries he’s had in his pursuit of fame and fortune.
Yet it seemed the adversity he’s survived was at the core of the music.
There have been few New York shows where Clapton played his Stratocaster better or brought such emotion to his vocals. He was totally assured, yet projected the humbleness of a master craftsman.
Even during the sugar shock of Wonderful Tonight, he transcended the sap in the final breaths of the tune when his eight-man band quieted, allowing the boss to sing in a near whisper, I love you to a woman who’s now just a memory. It was wonderful.
This was the concert’s big ballad, and it melted the women and made the guys cheer, but the show really was all about powerhouse electric blues.
That was clear by the end of Hoochie Coochie Man, the second song in the fat, two-hour set.
Clapton worked the famed 12-bar progression like a caged cat. If you happened to see the From the Cradle acoustic blues tour in the late 90s, this show put that acclaimed concert series to shame. Clapton played the electric guitar as if he’s been practicing five hours a day.
His fretwork was liquid fast, precise and very soulful. He used sudden stops for dynamics and traded licks with his bandmates as if the music were a conversation.
How good was it?
You could read it from his expression: His usually stony and dour mug yielded to a wide smile a number of times during this concert.
But the biggest grins were reserved for when the leader of the warm-up band, Robert Randolph, joined Clapton and company for the encore set.
Randolph, who plays pedal steel guitar, can sling notes as fast as Clapton and isn’t intimidated playing with the greatest living guitarist on the planet.
To watch these two aces duel through Sunshine of Your Love and Got My Mojo Working was such magic, the pair should really consider playing a few co-headlining dates in a more intimate theater setting.
As unlikely as it seems, at 59, Slowhand seems to be at the top of his game. See for yourself. He’s playing one more show at the Garden tonight.
Eric Clapton at the Junction of Precision and Improvising
By By BEN RATLIFF
New York Times
Published June 30, 2004
Several times during Eric Clapton’s show at Madison Square Garden on Monday night he began a guitar solo with authority, and a prospector of thrills might have been tempted to lay a bet. Would he take this one to the land beyond licks? Would it get around the fast and precise triplet figures where his improvisations usually crest? Would he wrench apart the expected with some rhythmic displacement, smear up the perfect diagrams of his playing?
Not really. But you shouldn’t take Mr. Clapton out of context. Rock shows – even those delivered by middle-aged men in running shoes – often build up to innocent release, the sound of glass crashing. Mr. Clapton polishes the glass, endlessly refining. His guitar playing pulls itself into taut symmetries, building up to wailing high notes and then coming down. His phrases operate in a tightly circumscribed area in relation to the beat. He squeezes soul and accuracy out of his own limited voice. He is tremendously even, which can be tremendously appealing.
Because the core of the show, bracketed by old hits, was music from his new album, Me and Mr. Johnson (Reprise), the evenness had another dimension. The album is a tribute to Robert Johnson, and as recent blues scholarship has argued (particularly an insightful book called Escaping the Delta by Elijah Wald), Johnson did not particularly prize spontaneity. He was a careful entertainer.
When Johnson sounded as if he was improvising, as in the spoken asides in Me and the Devil Blues, his identical asides in the second take proved that he was using a crafted routine. And Mr. Clapton, while inserting more soloing into his versions, likewise stuck to his band’s arrangements for the Johnson material.
Me and the Devil Blues began Mr. Clapton’s concert-within-a-concert. (For the whole Johnson segment, the group’s guitarists and bassists sat down in chairs at the front of the stage, before a hideous Art Brut backdrop that looked like bedsheets splashed with cement.) That first song, played on acoustic guitars, as well as electric versions of Milkcow’s Calf Blues, If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day and Kind Hearted Woman Blues, formed the best parts of a middleweight night, fitted with interlocking riffs between Mr. Clapton and the band’s other guitarist, Doyle Bramhall II. Together they intimated at the push and pull of what Johnson did by himself.
For Kind Hearted Woman Blues, the drummer Steve Gadd, the bassist Nathan East and the keyboardists Chris Stainton and Tim Carmon set up an easy, chugging tempo. From his first solo phrases, Mr. Clapton sounded ready to take off. But he quickly tethered himself to the ground, repeating well-made stock phrases. (Mr. Bramhall doesn’t have the delicate sound of his bandleader, but his solos provided a few more jolts.) And Mr. Clapton’s singing found falsetto notes, growls and hoarse cries, yet hovered in the realm of the adequate.
For the rest of the show, Mr. Clapton essentially ran laps around the track. Most of the set list came from his 2002 live album, One More Car, One More Rider, with Hoochie Coochie Man, Layla, Badge, Wonderful Tonight and Cocaine.
In the encores he had duets with the steel-guitarist Robert Randolph, the concert’s opening act, on Sunshine of Your Love and Got My Mojo Working. Mr. Randolph can enthusiastically trade solos for a long time. But Mr. Clapton set stiff limits on a jam session: their entanglements were dense, loud and short, one final burst of power before the end.
Two chances to be in the presence of Clapton’s genius
by Denise Miller
(fan review courtesy of whereseric.com)
I could not resist two chances to be in the presence of Clapton’s genius. Saturday night in Phila truly satisfied my passion to witness the living legend. I best enjoyed the first part of his show knowing he was sharing his favorite songs with us, but enjoyed every hit song he gave to us. Knowing that I would leave wanting more, I carefully planned tickets for Tuesday in NYC. Tonight’s show in New York … . well… who could ask for more??? From his first solo in LET IT RAIN it was instantly clear that this was going to be a show to rival his own best! Solo after solo poured out of his powerful fingertips as he shared with an adoring crowd how much fun it can be to play with a guitar. Eric’s high strung emotions radiated from his well known facial expressions. Beneath his weathered face he danced and rocked about in that way that makes me swoon. It was during his seated Robert Johnson set that he moved about the most, (his legs flying about like a young Elvis), the passion of his playing and singing bypassing his acclaimed MYV UNPLUGGED work. I love to watch this man play. And there were some other guys on stage with him… just kidding I love his band too!
Clapton Rains Down on the Garden
By Aram David
The New York Opinion
Published July 1, 2004
Eric Clapton’s performance last night at Madison Square Garden was enough to turn even the most passive music fan into a screaming Clapton lunatic… just imagine what it did to a long-time devotee.
As Robert Randolph neared the end of his opening performance, the odds of matching that level of enthusiasm were slim; you could see Randolph was having the time of his life, having given up touring with Dave Matthews to tour with Clapton, and showing so much love for his home city and the music.
But Clapton rushed right to the stage ( Crash One in hand) punctual and persistent, chopping away at the opening chords of Let It Rain, a lost gem that now sparkles as bright as the countless others in Clapton’s crown. And by the middle of the song, the whole audience felt like they had been there for hours, since Clapton took no time to pull out the big guns. There was more excitement in Let it Rain than in Clapton’s entire performance at the Garden for his Pilgrim tour 6 years earlier. And that set the stage for a very rewarding pattern: every single song out of his 18 song set would receive no less, if not even more of a solo than the song before it. Dare I even say that half the night was spent between Clapton and his guitar; to him, none of us were even in the room. That might be why Clapton laughed out loud at our screaming ovation after he finished Let It Rain.
This is a giant leap for Clapton, a man who once performed in a reserved manner and kept his soloing to a controlled portion, just filling the requirement while still wowing audiences. But in this show, I was more than satisfied by the time he got to I Wanna Little Girl, and by then we were only 4 songs into it.
We might not have been deep into the show, but Clapton was neck-deep into his playing, and had taken his glasses off so that he could scoop sweat out of his eyes.
Previous reviews nailed Clapton’s performance of I Shot The Sheriff; the solo from which might have actually resurrected the Sheriff, and the deputy as well, with so many notes fighting to get out, even Django Reinhardt would have been jealous. After Sheriff, Clapton’s shirt was soaked with sweat, and he took a seat on stage up-front with Nathan East and Doyle Bramhall II, quickly going into the Robert Johnson set. Clapton was in such a great mood, that the roadie was waved off when he tried to mic Clapton’s black acoustic guitar properly; Clapton just wanted to play, he was having a good time.
Like every rollercoaster, the home stretch is always the most uncontrollable and unpredictable part, and even knowing the set-list ahead of time, I was still surprised when the songs began. Somehow, of all the classic songs that Clapton played, I can’t get last night’s version of Got To Get Better In A Little While out of my head. But when I really think about it, the trio of Have You Ever Loved A Woman, Badge, and Layla really resonate with true emotion and importance, not only because of their classic status, but because of their history and connection with one of Eric Clapton’s best friends, the late George Harrison.
Lastly (in the formal sense), Clapton played Cocaine with such force and power that I may never be able to listen to a recorded version of that song ever again, unless it is a bootleg from this tour. Clapton rocked back and forth violently while playing his solo (as he did for most of the show), and with his eyes closed carved though a massive solo that I dare to say put his famous performance of Crossroads (with Cream) to shame. Shame.
He thanked us with a grin the size of Cleveland, and left the stage. When he returned to do Sunshine Of Your Love, the audience was on their feet; some even leapt off their feet and dove into strangers when they heard the opening chords. And then Robert Randolph got up on stage, squaring off with Clapton, leaving our ears in the most pleasurable deadness imaginable.
I left the concert wondering what could possibly affect this change in Clapton, and I realized that the same thing that was making him smile was the same thing that was pushing him over the edge and into a completely new realm. Clapton was so happy, so thrilled to be playing, and just as corny as it sounds so thrilled to be alive, that he played like there was no tomorrow.
Where once he channeled the emotions of his late son to get him through the night, now it seems Clapton is instead focusing on the happiness he feels from his new family. Before, it felt like Clapton was performing because he was supposed to, now it feels like he is playing because he needs to.
I thought I loved Clapton the first two times I saw him ( 95 and 98 ), and through the hundreds of Clapton recordings I own (both official and unofficial), but now I feel more inclined than ever to spray-paint Clapton is God on a wall… and we all know I would not be the first one to do so. I would be the first one to graffiti Clapton’s name on a wall since the 60’s… but if fans knew Clapton would ever reach this peak, they might have never stopped.
Guitar god Clapton gets `Mojo Working
By Dean Johnson
Boston Herald
Published July 4, 2004
This just might be the tour that allows legendary guitarist Eric Clapton to finally come to terms with his lengthy, distinguished career.
The last few years have been restless ones for Clapton. The last time he played the area he’d just announced he would no longer tour.
An earlier tour featured a Clapton who said he was no longer going to do any of his pop and rock songs.
Well, he obviously has decided to tour again, and last night’s muscular two-hour concert featured plenty of his pop material, including the opening Let It Rain, Wonderful Tonight and Badge.
But nearly half of the 18-song set was the blues and nothing but the blues, including a five-song semi-plugged segment smack in the middle of the night comprised of Robert Johnson songs from Clapton’s most recent album.
That mix seemed to satisfy him, and it kept the near-capacity crowd deliriously happy.
Clapton long ago eschewed his sheer gunslinger days and now prefers to use his guitar talents to seduce rather than knock down his listeners.
Nevertheless, there were moments last night such as the flamethrower solo in I Want a Little Girl, a taut I Shot the Sheriff, a snarling Got to Get Better in a Little While and a wailing Layla when Clapton got out the heavy artillery and did serious collateral damage.
Some of his most inspired playing was saved for the double encore of Sunshine of Your Love and Got My Mojo Working, when he swapped murderous licks with opening act Robert Randolph.
Clapton’s vocals were in fine shape and still showed the influence of Ray Charles more than any other singer.
He also was generous to his backing band and made sure guitarist Doyle Bramhall II, organist Billy Preston and pianist Chris Stanton had plenty of solo space. All three made good use of the opportunity.
Robert Randolph and the Family Band began the night with a frantic set, maybe even too frantic. The jams were so upbeat and frenzied there was little time or space for much of the music to sink in. Randolph did, however, do things – good things – on the pedal steel guitar that most rational musicians wouldn’t even think of attempting.
Clapton leaves T.O. fans happy
By Mark Daniel
JAM! Music
He didn’t strike that imposing a figure when he took the stage in front of a sold-out crowd at the Air Canada Centre, but when Eric Clapton picked up his electric guitar and strummed the first notes to Let it Rain, it was clear that there was a legend in the house.
Touring behind his recent release Me and Mr. Johnson — his tribute to blues great Robert Johnson — last night’s 18-song, 120-minute set, presented a sweet mix of the old and the older.
Absent were the radio-friendly hits like My Father’s Eyes and Change the World.
Instead, after an opening that let both Clapton and his slick backing musicians flex their musical chops, the 59-year-old singer muscled his way through a catalogue that spanned over 40 years.
As he proceeded to pick his way through a raucous version of Hoochie Coochie Man, followed shortly after by a plaintive I Want a Little Girl, the adoring crowd was soon treated to a funked-up version of I Shot the Sheriff and a sumptuous five-song set featuring tunes from the recent album.
After abandoning the acoustic guitar he used to elegantly resurrect Me and the Devil Blues, a seated, eyes closed Clapton and fellow guitarist Doyle Bramhall II electrified the audience with rousing renditions of Milkcow’s Calf Blues and (If I Had) Possession Over Judgement Day.
Both keyboardists Chris Stainton and Billy Preston had plenty of opportunity to shine during they’re Red Hot cutting loose from Clapton and Bramhall’s guitar solos in wild flourishes.
On a night where Clapton was content on letting his music do the all talking, he avoided witty stage banter and continued to make the melancholic sound sweet with Got To Get Better In A Little While, Have You Ever Loved A Woman and Badge.
And while the singer finally gave the audience what they had come for with a gracious Wonderful Tonight followed by boisterous takes on Layla and Cocaine, the highlight came with an encore that was blazing and relentless both in its intensity and energy.
With the crowd already on its feet, opener Robert Randolph joined Clapton for Sunshine of Your Love and Got My Mojo Working. Clapton led an electrifying call-and-response-exchange between himself and Randolph that left both with grins as wide as Lake Ontario by the end.
And it seems that although Eric Clapton had come to play the blues, the crowd went home feeling anything but sad.
Relaxed Clapton puts on spirited show
By JEFF SPEVAK
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
Published July 10, 2004
The road from rock to the rocking chair takes about three decades.
That was the journey that Layla, one of the great rock anthems of all time, took from Derek & the Dominoes to Unplugged.
Yeah, Eric Clapton’s playing these days is more amiable, sentimental and contemplative than the night he first bared his electric soul in pursuit of another man’s wife: Why’d he have to go and castrate Layla, launching 1,000 pointless lightweights?
He’s been criticized as being overly studious in recent years. Yet at 57, Clapton was hardly doddering at Buffalo’s HSBC Arena.
A tight, energetic half hour of Robert Randolph & the Family Band set the table. Randolph, a young pedal-steel guitarist, is a fan of Rochester’s own Campbell Brothers, and there’s a similar gospel element to what he does. But it’s also rock and soul, and Clapton fans seem to appreciate the wailing guitar riffs and caterwauling jams offered by Randolph on the likes of Jimi Hendrix’s Voodoo Chile.
So he was a perfect fit when Clapton brought him out later in the show for some dexterous string pulling.
But Clapton, looking like he’d just come from a relaxing shopping spree at Land’s End, is a long way from being fitted for his first round of Depends.
This was a classic-rock crowd, in mood and in pear-shaped profile. From Clapton’s opening number, Let it Rain, and its soaring arpeggio guitar solo, 12,000 people were frequently singing along with Clapton, a feel-good moment that was heard throughout the evening.
I Shot the Sheriff received such a dynamic reworking in the opening moments that its slow-hand reggae rhythm went virtually unrecognized until the signature, cascading riff.
Steve Gadd, an Irondequoit native and Penfield resident who is regarded as one of the greatest rock drummers on the planet, seemed so mesmerizingly locked into the rhythm that taking your eyes off him was like walking away from a Swedish deep-muscle massage.
Songs like Badge remained compelling. As did Sunshine of your Love, a first encore that howled around the bowl of the HSBC like it was 1969 all over again.
Let’s see Nickelback write one of those.
Blues covers like Hoochie-Coochie Man were well-suited to Clapton’s slow blues howl. This was just a preamble for a few songs later, and the sort of acoustic Robert Johnson set, featuring Kind Hearted Woman Blues.
Clapton’s latest album, Me and Mr. Johnson, is a tribute to the old blues legend. Clapton has always played Johnson’s songs, but his arrangements are more lush and easier on the ear.
Yet not lounge-lane. Near the end of the show, Clapton blew the Unplugged mold from Layla, letting Doyle Bramhall II take the lead guitar, and rocked into the encore with the anthemic J.J. Cale classic Cocaine. The crowd sang along a little too enthusiastically on that one.
Rock-god status revived
Eric Clapton plays what he wants, lets band display talents at Gund Arena show
by Malcolm X Abram
Akron Beacon Journal
Published July 11, 2004
Eric Clapton’s fans may no longer be vandalizing walls to spread the word that Clapton is God, but the man himself made a pretty good argument for the revival of the decades-old proclamation Saturday night at Gund Arena.
Clapton announced his retirement from the road a few years ago, but he showed that he still had the desire to perform during this two-hour concert, ripping off several fine solos.
After nearly 40 years in music, Clapton has nothing to prove. Throughout the show he gave his excellent eight-piece band — including longtime bassist Nathan East, veteran drummer Steve Gadd, keyboardists Billy Preston and Chris Stainton and new guitarist Doyle Bramhall II — ample room to display their abilities.
He also didn’t feel compelled to fill his set with hits as he eschewed much of his 80s and 90s output (including Tears In Heaven), for old album tracks such as the midtempo set opener Let It Rain from his self-titled 1970 release.
Casually dressed in a blue button-down shirt and matching jeans, Clapton didn’t unleash his thick guitar tone until the fifth song, a funky, slowed-down arrangement of Bob Marley’s I Shot The Sheriff.
After the second verse the band broke it down, and Clapton took his time constructing a solo with all the familiar trills and triplets that built to a climax that brought the sedate crowd out of their seats.
That early high point was followed by a semiacoustic set of five cuts from Clapton’s most recent Robert Johnson tribute, Me & Mr. Johnson. Tunes such as they’re Red Hot were played with more energy than was conveyed on the recorded versions.
Clapton pulled out a few gems from his Derek & the Dominoes days, turning Got To Get Better In a Little While into a foot-stomping funk workout.
Clapton may not have played all the hits (what?! no Crossroads?) but he ended the show with four crowd-pleasers in a row: A grooving Badge, Wonderful Tonight (that had the folks on the floor of the arena slow dancing), the original arrangement of Layla, and the old war horse Cocaine.
Opener Robert Randolph and the Family Band generated a power plant’s worth of energy with their infectious upbeat gospel-inflected jams and Randolph’s amazing steel guitar technique.
[u:26bbac287c][b:26bbac287c]Lightning Strikes Thrice in the Rose Garden Tonight[/b:26bbac287c][/u:26bbac287c] Reviewed: Eric Clapton at the Rose Garden Arena July 28th, 2004 * Portland, Oregon * By: Todd ToJo Johnson, I.M.C. ([i:26bbac287c]Independent Music Critic[/i:26bbac287c]) They say that when you’re about to be struck by lighting, the hair on your arms and the back of your neck stands up straight just prior to the jolt. On Wednesday night, I finally understood how this might feel, when the first bolts of pure guitar lightning hit me right between the eyes, as Eric Clapton poured on the electricity in the opening strains of Let It Rain . Looking more like the guy sitting next to you, in jeans, short sleeves and blue Nike’s, Clapton threw bolts of lightning from Crash 3 – his so-named Fender Stratocaster like Zeus standing on Mt. Olympus, towering over his delighted audience below. Seated just 3 rows from the right side of the stage, we had a perfect view of the rock-and-roll storm bringer known to many fans as simply E.C. Like a thunder-boomer rolling through the Cascades on a hot summer’s night, E.C. (Electric Conduit?) and his stellar band drenched the eager Portland audience with a torrential downpour of hits, rarities and blues tunes spanning more than 37 turbulent years. Sliding appropriately from Let It Rain into the Muddy Waters classic, Hoochie Coochie Man , everyone in the Rose Garden knew that this was going to be a very special night for Slowhand fans of all ages. Seemingly staying course with the precipitation theme, Clapton and Company continued to douse the house with the Dylan nugget Walk Out In The Rain from his 1978 Backless album. In a beautifully orchestrated version, the female vocalists let loose a flood of honey-coated harmonies, saturating the song with a hint of gospel-tinged righteousness. Backed by the best tour band in years, Clapton shared both the stage and the spotlight with Doyle Bramhall II on rhythm and co-lead guitar; long-time (and ever smiling) bassist, Nathan East; power-house drummer Steve Gadd; and not one, but two great keyboardists Chris Stainton on the ivories and the incomparable living legend, Billy Preston, on the beloved Hammond B3 organ. Completing the octet with Sharon White and Michelle John, the two gospel-inspired divas on back-up vocals, the night’s musical baptism was underway. Clapton clearly showed why he is regarded by many as the greatest rock guitarist alive today, and possibly ever. With deceptive ease and fluidity, he and the band flowed effortlessly from the gritty blues of Waters, Dixon and Johnson, into the smoky jazz-tinged strains of I Wanna Little Girl , finally slipping into the funky syncopation of Marley’s classic I Shot the Sheriff . It was during this song, deftly reworked by Clapton with a groovier hook and truly ethereal riffs, that I was struck by the second Zeus-bolt of the night. As many times as I have heard this song performed, both studio and live versions, I was simultaneously shocked numb and completely electrified during this totally recharged performance. Applauding, whistling and howling with a wild fervor, the 3-generation audience responded with loudest ovation of the evening, clearly sharing their passion for the music and appreciation for their guitar hero . It was here that Clapton’s crew pulled the electric ship into port and alternately set sail on a five-song acoustic set, featuring the classic blues of E.C.’s personal guitar hero, Robert Johnson. With a reverent I’d like to thank Mr. Robert Johnson for these , Eric, Doyle, Nathan and Chris sat down and delivered up fiery acoustic versions of Me and the Devil Blues , They’re Red Hot , Milkcow’s Blues , Possession Over Judgement Day , and the set topper, Kind Hearted Woman . Somewhere, the blues gods were certainly smiling. With that, the acoustic spinnaker was reeled in and the motor cranked back up, with the full band taking the stage to rev up another lost treasure from Derek & the Dominoes days, Got To Get Better In A Little While . Churning the audience into the second frenzy of the night, Clapton and Bramhall equally trading riffs and grins, the stage was set for a stormy ride back to shore. Evoking images of menacing black clouds and heavy-hearted weather, Clapton and shipmates delivered a wickedly twisted Have You Ever Loved A Woman , eliciting howls from the gals and knowing-nods from the guys as testimony to the emotional depths of this true blues warhorse. It was during this song that Billy Preston unleashed his power and prowess on that well-traveled Hammond organ. With a mesmerizing solo, Preston provoked the only standing ovation of the night in the MIDDLE of a song! This was quite deserved, and the joy on his face reciprocated the elation of his fans. Rounding the point, the lighthouses (or were those Bic lighters?), beckoned the crew homeward, desperately seeking that holiest of grail, Clapton’s classic rock staples. Taking the rudder, Clapton steered head-on into a trio of George Harrison (and wife) inspired 70’s hits Badge , Wonderful Tonight and the quintessential rock-and-roll lament, Layla . With the riff heard round the world , Clapton hit me with his third lightning strike of the night, sending high-voltage shivers from the top of my neck to the core of my spine. This was it, the REAL Layla , the seminal air-guitar of all Clapton wanna-bees that ever shamelessly stroked those invisible strings on ghost guitars in homage to their leader. THIS was Clapton; the man, the legend, the six-string deity and the conduit of every charged particle of euphoria sweeping over the animated and adoring masses. Beaming back at his devoted throng, Eric and Doyle lit into J.J. Cale’s infamously themed staple, Cocaine . With the rabid crowd repeating the well-known chorus, the female back-up faction warned in refrain, that dirty Cocaine . With a wry smile just before closing his eyes, tilting his head back and literally ripping the notes off the face of his Fender, Clapton showed me The Blur . The Blur is what was used to describe Clapton’s peer-appointed nickname, Slowhand . Legend has it that upon seeing young Eric play, The Yardbirds manager Giorgio Gomelsky, called him ’slowhand because his hand actually blurred from playing notes and chord so fast that they eye could not see. Tonight, like the fabled green flash on the horizon of a South Pacific sunset, I witnessed The Blur . (Or possibly rock-and-roll’s version of Operation Shock and Awe.) E.C. and crew left the stage, and a crowd determined to bring them back with sheer enthusiasm. With the band now augmented by Robert Randolph and his 13-string pedal steel, they returned to deliver a supercharged encore of Cream’s classic Sunshine Of Your Love and Muddy’s feverishly pitched Got My Mojo Working . With young Randolph trading slide licks with both Clapton and Bramhall, and the band in full-steam-ahead mode, no one dared leave the revival tent before witnessing the miracle bond between this man and his guitar. As the sparks cooled and thunder in the dome subsided, I thought to myself how lucky it was to be hit by this lightning… . and live to tell about it! Epilogue: As we left, exhausted and satisfied, I overheard a 14 year old behind us, talking to his father. He said: ’dad, when did you say we could go pick out that guitar for me? And a new legend begins… ? [b:26bbac287c]Opening Act: [/b:26bbac287c] Robert Randolph & The Family Band [b:26bbac287c]EC’s Band Lineup: [/b:26bbac287c] Eric Clapton – Guitar, Vocals Nathan East – Bass Steve Gadd – Drums Doyle Bramhall II – Guitar, Vocals Chris Stainton – Keyboards Billy Preston – Keyboards, hammond organ Sharon White – Background Vocals Michelle John – Background Vocals [b:26bbac287c][u:26bbac287c]Setlist: July 28th, 2004 * Portland, Oregon: [/u:26bbac287c][/b:26bbac287c] 01. Let It rain 02. Hoochie Coochie Man 03. Walk Out In The Rain 04. I Wanna Little Girl 05. I Shot The Sheriff 06. Me and the Devil Blues 07. they’re Red Hot 08. Milkcow’s Calf Blues 09. (If I Had) Posession Over Judgement Day 10. Kind Hearted Woman 11. Got To Get Better In A Little While 12. Have You Ever Loved A Woman 13. Badge 14. Wonderful tonight 15. Layla 16. Cocaine Encores 17. Sunshine of Your Love (with Robert Randolph) 18. Got My Mojo Working (with Robert Randolph) – said PanicPusher on Jul 07, 2004
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