[Slowhand] EC at Verizon Center Wash DC

[Mark McCabe]

Last night old "Slowhand" delivered the blues/rock concert goods at the Verizon Center here in Wash DC.  He and Robert Cray played for almost 3 hours.....Clapton's set was about 2 hours plus and Cray played for 35 mins (as the opening act.)
   
  The show was a mix of  the old AOR classics (Layla, Cocaine, After Midnight, Pretending, I Shot The Sheriff) and a generous amount of blues covers from Clapton's solo career. Highlights for me were Further On Up The Road, Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out, Crossroads, Motherless Children (great slide guitar), I Am Yours, Anyday, and Got To Get Better In A Little While.
   
  The hockey arena "rock" sound mix was a too loud for my taste...I also did not care for the synth piano noodlings of Tim Carmon or the hammer style piano playing of Chris Stainton.  I usually enjoy Stainton's boogie woogie piano on previous Clapton tours; last night his playing was a little "over the top" with no finesse just a lot of hard banging of the keys. No subtlety at all...no blues feel to his keyboard fills.
   
  The two young guitarists in the Clapton band, Doyle Bramhall II and Derek Trucks, were generously given solo spotlights in almost every song. The guitar solo sequence quickly became predictable with Doyle, Derek and then Eric soloing to bring the song to a close.  Clapton must be trying to appeal to the younger "jam band" crowd with some songs going almost 15 minutes with solos by every band member (thankfully, there was NO drum solo last night). The problem is that the band never really "jammed" - everything seemed to be tightly scripted and choreographed.
   
  The Robert Cray Band was quite good as the opener. Robert pulled out two of his original blues radio hits, Phone Booth and Bad Influence - both songs were the highlights of his short set. Cray's set was so good that the crowd gave a standing ovation!
   
  A nice evening of blues and thanks to Eric for the much needed bathroom break during Wonderful Tonight!

 		
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