[Slowhand] Antwerpen 2006 Review

[CB]

Hi slowhanders,

Just back from the Antwerpen concert from yesterday. So here are my 
personal comments :
First of all, E.C. setlist generator is working again and he dropped 
'I Shot the sheriff' from the setlist
which was replaced by 'Bell Bottom Blues'.

Overall a good performance. Noticed that the songs were played 
faster, specially the last 5 tracks.
At the end an encore with Robert Cray on stage who performed a good 
opening (but several times
remembered people to buy his new album called '20').

The band as you know is new but the are working after some concert 
quiet well together. As Ken Norris
mentionned some days ago 'Willie Weeks and Steve Jordan push harder 
than Nathan and Steve.' Sorry
Steve and sorry Nathan but the new guys push much much harder then 
you and everyone wins.

Derek's playing is quiet amazing. But more from the mid of the 
setlist. Had the feeling that his slide guitar fits
better to some songs than to other. For instance, the beginning of 
the piano solo from Pretending is now
accompagnied by Derek on slide and that's, from my point of view, not 
the best thing to do. The introduction
has been for years been played by solo piano and piano and slide 
together is not working fine together.

Eric needs 3 songs to get in and starts playing his first great solo 
around 'Got To Get Better In A Little While'.
The roof was put on fire during 'Queen Of Spades' and burned to the 
end.  The songs from 'Everybody Oughta
Make A Change' to Crossroads were played in an amazing speed whith 
quite lot of great solos ... played by
Doyle, Derek and EC. So everyone of the three have their playing 
time. Derek a lot of background playing,
Doyle this time some main solos and the rest (mainly from the mid 
show to the end) by EC.

A new sound and much more saturated and louder (thanks to 3 guitars), 
a new stage light show and at the end
a great show. Having seen Eric now playing for the 8th time, I 
thought during the last tour that Doyle's presence
helped a lot to improve the global playing. Thanks to Derek, Willie 
and Steve everything improved again in a positive way
so don't  be afraid to go and see the old man playing.

EC wrote in his tour program and that are my final words for today :

'... so if you're old and decrepit like me, you'llbe right at home 
... if however, you're under forty, you might not
recognise some of the songs we'll be playing, hopefully you'll like 
them anyway, but I guarantee that whatever you hear,
will be definitely played with feeling...'  .... Eric C.