[Slowhand] Orlando Review

[RMS1]

Greetings!  I, too, saw EC at Orlando on Friday night, and must agree
with David's review.  It was a real treat to hear so many songs I'd
never heard live in concert before, especially one of my personal
favorites, "Old Love". Like some others have mentioned, I wasn't real
crazy about the synthesizer solo (although my sister thought it was cool
how he got it to sound so much like a guitar), and to see all 3 guys up
there playing slide in unison on "Motherless Children" was awesome (in
the true sense of the word)!  I was really tickled to hear "SF Bay
Blues", and "Key to the Highway"; I knew it hadn't been mentioned by any
of the earlier reviews.  It dawned on me later that no recent material
had been played at all.  I left all my notes at home, so I'll say more
in a later post.

Orlando is about 2-1/2 hours away from home for me, and we made a
weekend of it, just getting home 7:30 last night.  I just found out that
the tour ends tonight in Miami (3 hours away, terrible driving).  But I
wouldn't have minded being able to afford seeing them twice.  Well worth
what we spent on tickets, hotel room, cab, etc.

Tired but happy,

Debby J.

-----Original Message-----
From: David Fynan [mailto:clwphils at tampabay.rr.com] 
Sent: Saturday, October 21, 2006 12:37 AM
To: slowhand at planet-torque.com
Subject: [Slowhand] Orlando Review

Just got back from the Orlando concert.  Overall, really good show.   
I liked the 2004 concert I went to, but I thought this one was much  
better.  Two exceptions being that I Shot the Sheriff and Got to Get  
Better in a Little While were shorter and not nearly as powerful this  
time around.

The big news for me was that the man varied the set list, albeit  
slightly.  Back Home and I am Yours were gone and replaced by a  
stunning acoustic Key to The Highway, with Doyle sharing vocals and  
playing the harmonica(!), and San Francisco Bay Blues.  Doyle played  
harmonica on this one as well.  Eric looked like he was having a ball  
on KTTH.  He lied on Unplugged when he said "This is the first and  
last time you'll ever see this", because yes, he played the kazoo on  
San Francisco Bay Blues.  Personally, I would have rather heard I am  
Yours (which I was really looking forward to hearing) than San  
Francisco Bay Blues, but whatever.  The tradeoff for the slight  
variation in the set list I guess was that no Gibson made an  
appearance which has happened at other shows from what I read.  Oh  
well.  When God opens a window he closes a door, or something like  
that.  I really enjoyed the entire acoustic set.  KTTH and Nobody  
Knows You were just great.

It was cool to hear Motherless Children and After Midnight, which  
sound MUCH better live than they do on the albums.  Further on up the  
Road was great to hear, although Doyle and Derek did more playing  
than Eric on this one, which I found odd for a blues number.  Layla  
was more or less the same, though Eric soloed much better than other  
versions I've heard.  The coda with Derek, however, made this a joy  
to hear.  I've never been much of a fan of Cocaine, but this was a  
really fantastic version.

Eric was great on Little Queen of Spades as usual.  Derek's tone and  
style of his solo in this number was so eerie, it was incredible.   
Doyle had awesome tone from the Les Paul (sounded a little like  
Bloomfield at times) and put in a great solo.  I've never been  
particularly impressed by Doyle, but he was a lot more impressive  
this time around.

Crossroads was a heck of a lot better than the train wreck of a  
performance during the Cream reunion.

There were definitely times when Eric cut a solo too short (Sheriff,  
GTGBIALW, etc).  But this is nothing new.  Still, he played great,  
and his tone was much better and clearer than 2004, which I found to  
be kind of muddy. By the way, he used the middle pickup on his strat  
for just about every song.  That's not something I've seen him do all  
that much over the years.

All in all, a good time.