March 12, 2010

Eric Clapton Concert a Contrast

Saw Eric Clapton in Gwinnett on Tuesday, and he did not interact with the audience, and I don't think I saw him smile once. I don't own any of his CDs, but found his music applaudible. He had four pianos on stage with two piano players. I would love to listen to his music without the bass... but the bass is his personal trademark and skill and success, so that would be ironic.

My favorite songs were the acoustic guitar songs: "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out," "Running on Faith," and "I've Got a Rock 'N' Roll Heart." I also loved "Accuse Me" because it reminded me of eating at Shakey's Pizza Parlor in Rochester, Minnesota when I was young. There was lots of loud piano music on this song. Many were disappointed that Clapton skiped "Layla" in this concert. I did wonder after the concert if Bob Marley sang "Who Shot the Sherrif" first or Clapton. Turns out Bob Marley authored the song, but it is Clapton's only number one hit on his own. He took the song much further on the charts than Marley.

But the photography and screens really interested me during the show. There are photographs included in this review: http://blogs.pitch.com/wayward/2010/03/concert_review_eric_clapton.php.  Opening act, Roger Daltrey's video screens were projected in black and white with lots of fading, which was very cool. Clapton's screens mostly focused on photos of him. I was really interested in the 21 screens behind him that were interjected with color between them. The cameraman played video clips during two songs; one was "I've got a Rock and Roll Heart." They also showed his guitar in between the colors during the acoustic songs, but really didn't do much with these 21 screens besides add color to the background.
 
So, this show was quite a contrast between the last concert I attended, which was Taylor Swift. She totally utilized her five video screens (even changing her outfit), interacted with the audience and smiled one smile after another even during her sad breakup songs. Either Clapton has a lot of clothes that look alike, or he wore the exact same clothes in Kansas.

This review I include a link to says that it was okay because Clapton's guitar playing was flawless. According to Wikipedia,, "Clapton was ranked fourth in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the '100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.'" As I am not really into heavy bass, I was not that aware at the concert. But I did already add an album with his more mellow stuff on it to my amazon shopping cart . Which is the point of a show... to sell albums. So it worked on some level.

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