[Slowhand] June 23, 2004 Pepsi Arena Review in Albany Times Union

[Jackson, James T]

All,
 
Had a great time at the show, set list the same, got a copy from
the soundboard.  I tend to agree with much of the review below,
except I didn't see as much autopilot as the author.  I guess I
am a bit biased and I thought this show was much better than June 16,
2001
at the same venue.  My 14th row tickets that I bought at 6:30am
yesterday 
were great, hard to believe that one can get these great seats the day
of the show.
Robert Randolph and his band were very good and very entertaining, just
as
many of you have reported already.  Really wish we have taken our zoom
digital
camera, we could have got some great shots from our seats.  Security was

pretty lacking when we went in.  I think I am rambling now, due to lack
of sleep.
The two and a half hour drive there seemed shorter than the drive back
home.
Time to get some sleep at my desk.
 
Jim Jackson
Work: James.T.Jackson at lmco.com <mailto:James.T.Jackson at lmco.com> 
Home: JHawk at twcny.rr.com <mailto:JHawk at twcny.rr.com> 
 Web: Echoes at classicrock.com <mailto:Echoes at classicrock.com> 

 
A guitar master class at Pepsi 
 	 
By MICHAEL ECK, Special to the Times Union 
First 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."

ERIC CLAPTON with Robert Randolph & The Family Band

When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday

Where: Pepsi Arena, Pearl Street, Albany

Length: Eric Clapton, almost two hours; Robert Randolph, 45 minutes

Highlights: Clapton made "Let It Rain" seem fresh all over again.
Randolph's "Nobody" was a defiant funk strut laced with furious playing.

The crowd: Approximately 8,000 "Slowhand" fans

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