"Before They Bring The Curtain Down"

Well, the easiest way to sum up the Eric Clapton concert last night is in one word: wow.

I admit, when I first decided I wanted to see Clapton, I was also a wee bit skeptical. I've heard a lot of his '90s material, and it was...well, it was crap. He decided to go with some adult contemporary/R&B/pop crap that didn't even have guitar solos in it, and sometimes didn't even have guitars. Part of the blame rests with the otherwise phenomenal Unplugged album he did in the early '90s. The acoustic show wasn't really pop in and of itself--it featured several very good acoustic blues songs--but its two biggest hits, "Tears in Heaven" and a completely reworked and much slower "Layla"--sort of laid the foundation. His next big hit was the single "Change the World," another mostly acoustic number that really leaned heavily towards the adult contemporary style. Then he put out the album Pilgrim, which featured heavy drum loops, synths, and a load of rubbish songs.

In short, Clapton hit a slump in the mid- to late-90s that he's finally starting to pull out of. Clapton's most recent offering, Me and Mr. Johnson, is a set of acoustic blues covers originally done by bluesman Robert Johnson. It's a great album, or the songs I heard from it last night were great.

And that's the sort of thing we received all night last night--great rock and blues songs. Clapton put away all of his '90s crap (with the exception of a couple of cuts from Me and Mr. Johnson and a cut or two from the decent Reptile), and played nothing newer than the song "Wonderful Tonight." All the rest were old standards, great numbers with loads of killer guitar and piano/organ work. Clapton's soloing--and there was a hell of a lot of soloing in those two plus hours--was spot-on, fast as lightning, and as sharp as anything he's done in his entire career. The music sounded fresh, immediate, and heartfelt, as though Clapton were actually enjoying himself up there on stage instead of just going through the motions (as he sounded on the live album from his last tour, One More Car, One More Driver, a bland, blah record with very little to recommend it). And he wasn't the only one--his backing band had energy, chops, and enthusiasm to spare. And Clapton wasn't the only one up there soloing--the second guitarist could hold his own pretty well, and had several opportunities to cut loose with very tight, precise solos that fit that spot in the particular song perfectly. The pianist was just the sort you'd expect for a great blues/jazz jam band, with speed, precision, and just enough fluidity and improvisation to keep it interesting. And the organist was none other than Billy Preston, the guy who played keyboards on the Beatles' Let It Be. And let me tell you, Mr. Preston was no slouch, either--at one point, he was actually playing the organ with his knees.

All in all, the Clapton concert was one of the most rewarding live musical experiences I've had in a long time, probably the most rewarding since the first time I saw Tom Petty back in like 1991-92 or so. Clapton kept up the energy, the audience interaction, and the rockin' music the whole night, never letting up even for a minute. He opened the show with a smirk, playing the song "Let it Rain" (which is what it had been doing all freakin' day long in Oklahoma), and just kept going for the next two and some hours. And when he broke into "Layla" near the end of the show--the real "Layla," not the acoustic version--there wasn't a person in the audience who wasn't singing along at the top of their lungs.

It was magic. It was the blues. I see why they scrawled "Clapton is God" on subway walls in London in the late '60s.

~chaos cricket

Song of the Moment: Eric Clapton, "Let it Rain"