Clapton '13 Tour

mca47

Just saw Clapton open his tour in Phoenix...
Phenomenal!!!!!
Completely blown away!

If you have a chance to see him this spring/summer, you've got to go!!

mikalina

mca47 wrote:

Just saw Clapton open his tour in Phoenix...
Phenomenal!!!!!
Completely blown away!

If you have a chance to see him this spring/summer, you've got to go!!

I've seen him in the past ... he does put on a great show. :thumbup:

Jeanwah

Does he sit or stand for the show? Man, I thought his future was done some 15 years ago when he did more than half the show sitting down.

evenflow82

This is the Clapton is like. :-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BGlFsf9DM8

kwdaley

Saw him with Jeff Beck 3 years ago. To be frank, Jeff Beck is the better guitarist IMO. Clapton almost put me to sleep. When he came out, he sat on a chair playing acoustic and I certainly wasn't impressed when he played Layla acoustically. Show picked up when he plugged in and went into overdrive when he and Beck shared the stage for their "together" set.

samjam

I must see him live!!! Maybe, just maybe he'll somehow add a DC date this tour?

DewieCox

kwdaley wrote:

Saw him with Jeff Beck 3 years ago. To be frank, Jeff Beck is the better guitarist IMO. Clapton almost put me to sleep. When he came out, he sat on a chair playing acoustic and I certainly wasn't impressed when he played Layla acoustically. Show picked up when he plugged in and went into overdrive when he and Beck shared the stage for their "together" set.

Of course Jeff Beck is a better guitarist. Clapton's always been overrated in my book, as a guitarist and his overall career. He's had some landmark work, but I don't think he's ever been the definitive creative force in his great bands and he's got some pretty lackluster solo stuff.

peacefrompaul

DewieCox wrote:

kwdaley wrote:

Saw him with Jeff Beck 3 years ago. To be frank, Jeff Beck is the better guitarist IMO. Clapton almost put me to sleep. When he came out, he sat on a chair playing acoustic and I certainly wasn't impressed when he played Layla acoustically. Show picked up when he plugged in and went into overdrive when he and Beck shared the stage for their "together" set.

Of course Jeff Beck is a better guitarist. Clapton's always been overrated in my book, as a guitarist and his overall career. He's had some landmark work, but I don't think he's ever been the definitive creative force in his great bands and he's got some pretty lackluster solo stuff.

Yes! A lot of his solo stuff is shit

Cream is where it was at

EdsonNascimento

DewieCox wrote:

kwdaley wrote:

Saw him with Jeff Beck 3 years ago. To be frank, Jeff Beck is the better guitarist IMO. Clapton almost put me to sleep. When he came out, he sat on a chair playing acoustic and I certainly wasn't impressed when he played Layla acoustically. Show picked up when he plugged in and went into overdrive when he and Beck shared the stage for their "together" set.

Of course Jeff Beck is a better guitarist. Clapton's always been overrated in my book, as a guitarist and his overall career. He's had some landmark work, but I don't think he's ever been the definitive creative force in his great bands and he's got some pretty lackluster solo stuff.

Guessing these are 2 people that have never seen him live other than this 1 acoustic session.

Dude is a genius.

EC is god.

This reminds me of my roommate's girlfriend in college who came in after a show one morning and said - he didn't sing enough. My roommate had to usher her out of the room quickly.

I will agree that some of his solo albums leave something to be desired. But, good lord. There's a reason he's part of like 50 "super groups" and it's not because they were looking for someone to take up space.

I have to say this thread has turned into absolute hilarity.


(Get the Winwood/Clapton tour Blu Ray from the Garden and give me a call).

DewieCox

EdsonNascimento wrote:

Guessing these are 2 people that have never seen him live other than this 1 acoustic session.

Dude is a genius.

EC is god.

This reminds me of my roommate's girlfriend in college who came in after a show one morning and said - he didn't sing enough. My roommate had to usher her out of the room quickly.

I will agree that some of his solo albums leave something to be desired. But, good lord. There's a reason he's part of like 50 "super groups" and it's not because they were looking for someone to take up space.

I have to say this thread has turned into absolute hilarity.

(Get the Winwood/Clapton tour Blu Ray from the Garden and give me a call).

Never seen him live, but have watched plenty of live material, including the Winwood stuff and some jams with Derek Trucks.

If he's a genius, what does that make Hendrix, Page, Gilmour?

Yes, he's been in some great supergroups that put his talent to good use, but that's far and away his best work, while his solo career isn't a patch on that. Cream, Bluesbreakers and Derek and the Dominoes all put out some quality music with some really great guitar playing, but they're very much group efforts and when he's been the main creative force it's been pretty average and doesn't do much to add to his legend. The fact that he didn't even write "his" most recognized riff speaks volumes.

Not discounting his ability or the influence of his early work, just don't think he's as good as the hype and unless there's something higher than God, he isn't that.

kwdaley

As I stated in my original post, I saw EC in 2010. He didn't really make me want to see him again. Jeff Beck, on the other hand, I have seen twice and twice he has not disappointed.

mca47

Jeanwah wrote:

Does he sit or stand for the show? Man, I thought his future was done some 15 years ago when he did more than half the show sitting down.

I don't remember him sitting down once.

mca47

DewieCox wrote:

Never seen him live, but have watched plenty of live material, including the Winwood stuff and some jams with Derek Trucks.

If he's a genius, what does that make Hendrix, Page, Gilmour?

Yes, he's been in some great supergroups that put his talent to good use, but that's far and away his best work, while his solo career isn't a patch on that. Cream, Bluesbreakers and Derek and the Dominoes all put out some quality music with some really great guitar playing, but they're very much group efforts and when he's been the main creative force it's been pretty average and doesn't do much to add to his legend. The fact that he didn't even write "his" most recognized riff speaks volumes.

Not discounting his ability or the influence of his early work, just don't think he's as good as the hype and unless there's something higher than God, he isn't that.

I honestly don't think it's fair to compare EC to Hendrix, Page, etc. They are completely different guitarists with completely different style. I don't even think you can really compare Hendrix to Page.
That said, I do think Clapton is a top 10 guitarist of alltime. The guy just plays with this perfect sense of emotion, and truly plays to the music itself as opposed to just playing as many notes as possible. Granted, I am a huge fan of jazz and the blues so I do appreciate that methodology.
I saw him open his tour in Phoenix last week and for an opener, the guy was on fire! Didn't miss a beat, didn't miss a note....and he was just shredding it the entire night!

SatansFuton

mca47 wrote:

Jeanwah wrote:

Does he sit or stand for the show? Man, I thought his future was done some 15 years ago when he did more than half the show sitting down.

I don't remember him sitting down once.

Other than the Unplugged performance, I've never seen a single bit of footage of him playing sitting down. Maybe he was sick that night or something.

Spoony C

I've only gotten to see EC twice--in spring 2008 and in early 2010 (when he had Roger Daltrey as his opening act). His 2008 band included Doyle Bramhall II on slide guitar, and it seemed like EC relied on Doyle to do a lot of the solo work, so I came away less impressed at Eric's live playing than I'd always anticipated. But the 2010 band didn't have an additional lead guitarist, so Eric took a lot more control of the solos, and it was hella impressive. The show featured some of the late 80s/early 90s tracks he'd done on the "24 Nights" live album, like "Running on Faith" and "Old Love," and those songs really packed a punch from his playing. He did a brief sit-down acoustic bit in the middle, with acoustic "Layla" (the one thing the 2008 show had over this one was electric "Layla"), but the bulk of the show was electric. It was in Nashville, so he brought out Vince Gill to play along during the acoustic set and to play an electric solo on the encore of "Crossroads," which was a lot of fun.

Regardless, I recommend his live show overall, based on the two versions I've seen.

EdsonNascimento

mca47 wrote:

DewieCox wrote:

Never seen him live, but have watched plenty of live material, including the Winwood stuff and some jams with Derek Trucks.

If he's a genius, what does that make Hendrix, Page, Gilmour?

Yes, he's been in some great supergroups that put his talent to good use, but that's far and away his best work, while his solo career isn't a patch on that. Cream, Bluesbreakers and Derek and the Dominoes all put out some quality music with some really great guitar playing, but they're very much group efforts and when he's been the main creative force it's been pretty average and doesn't do much to add to his legend. The fact that he didn't even write "his" most recognized riff speaks volumes.

Not discounting his ability or the influence of his early work, just don't think he's as good as the hype and unless there's something higher than God, he isn't that.

I honestly don't think it's fair to compare EC to Hendrix, Page, etc. They are completely different guitarists with completely different style. I don't even think you can really compare Hendrix to Page.
That said, I do think Clapton is a top 10 guitarist of alltime. The guy just plays with this perfect sense of emotion, and truly plays to the music itself as opposed to just playing as many notes as possible. Granted, I am a huge fan of jazz and the blues so I do appreciate that methodology.
I saw him open his tour in Phoenix last week and for an opener, the guy was on fire! Didn't miss a beat, didn't miss a note....and he was just shredding it the entire night!

He did the shows with Winton Marsalis completely seated.

Dewie loves the fact that Duane wrote and played the Layla riff on the album. He writes about it every chance he gets. The problem is, Duane's been dead for how many years? And I'm pretty sure that EC has played that riff himself once or twice.

Again, if you are talking song writing, I agree. EC has a few, but he mostly has folks write for him. Yes, please read that again. While he does a bunch of covers, a lot of his songs are written specifically for him by other writers. Why would that be? Oh, yeah, because Duane Allman played "his" riff. :roll:

Anyway, no skin off my back. You are truly missing one of the legends of music if you don't see him live.

There's a reason everyone from BB King and Buddy Guy to JJ Cale and John Mayall to Keb Mo and Taj Majal to Stevie Ray and Derek Trucks and so on and so forth want to play with the guy. And it's not because he's got the best coke in town anymore.

But, to each his own. When Bruce the horse man gets 270 something pages of comments and EC gets "overrated," I guess that's all you need to know about musical tastes on this board. Hard to believe we all like PJ. Maybe, I need to re-evaluate that.

SatansFuton

EdsonNascimento wrote:

But, to each his own. When Bruce the horse man gets 270 something pages of comments and EC gets "overrated," I guess that's all you need to know about musical tastes on this board. Hard to believe we all like PJ. Maybe, I need to re-evaluate that.

If Clapton had any association with Pearl Jam he'd be "Uncle Eric" and have a 270 page fluff thread as well.

Sure, Clapton might not be the most prolific songwriter, though he has written some great songs. But many virtuoso type guitarists haven't always been the best songwriters. Clapton is one of those guys (Mick Taylor is another that comes to mind) that might not be able to write all that many songs, but he can take your song and turn it into something else entirely (something he should almost get a writing credit for) and make it better. Like Crossroads for instance, it's technically a Robert Johnson cover, but other than the lyrics it's a Clapton original. Same goes for many of his songs, and Clapton always gives credit where it's due. Sometimes too much credit. I think Crossroads is technically credited to "Robert Johnson - Arranged By Eric Clapton", but on many other songs he just gives total credit to the original songwriter, even if his own contribution was much more than just covering a song. Also look at "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", it's George's song, but Clapton is what really set it off. George didn't tell him what notes to play, that was all Eric.

Better Dan

Although I don't know much of his stuff outside of the hits I do have a live DVD and have seen a few live performances online and I really like him. He's an outstanding guitar player. He's playing tomorrow here in Dallas and if I can get a cheap ticket I just might go check it out.

motorcade

Going to see EC at the Albert Hall in May.

Saw him play there previously with Steve Winwood...amazing show! Miss him at your peril!

Better Dan

Oops..looks like that Dallas show was yesterday. From the youtube videos it looks like he was seated for part of the show.

josevolution

The only time i saw EC live was at the Ronnie Lane trust fund show way back in the 80's in MSG and he was great but Page & Beck were better for my taste that night , but now i don't have any interest in seeing him at all ....