[Slowhand] Adelaide Australia concert review 9 Feb 07

[Hubert Orbons]

Hi folks,

Apologies for tardiness but here is my review of the Adelaide concert 
last Friday.

Eric Clapton Adelaide Entertainment Centre concert 9-Feb-07

SETLIST
Electric
Tell the truth
Key to the highway
Got to get better in a little while
Little wing
Unknown ? Gone in a little while ?
Acoustic with some electric
Driftin’ & driftin’
Outside woman blues
Nobody knows you when you’re down and out
Running on faith
Electric
Motherless Children
Little Queen of Spades (~17 mins)
Further on up the road
Wonderful tonight
Layla

Encore
Cocaine
Crossroads

No announcement just walked on stage. No intro or talk between first few 
songs, then hello Adelaide (or something similar). Little else was said 
all night apart from the band intros.

Sound was initially distorted, unclear and muddy from our seats (about 
10 o’clock from EC and about 10 rows up. This improved after a few songs 
but was seldom spot on. Acoustic set was the best in this regard. We 
could not pick our seats but were just allocated the best available – I 
guess that all depends on your point of view (no pun intended).

Great selection of songs but would have preferred less DT, DH & CS solos 
and more songs showcasing EC, eg Badge, SOYL, White Room, Hideaway. 
Could have easily “rested” either DT or DB for each song to keep the 
music less cluttered. Although DT & DB to lesser extent are great 
musicians, EC clearly outshines them which was a highlight for me at my 
only ever EC concert. DB looked like he couldn’t concentrate or was 
often distracted. Both DT & DB show little emotion but perhaps I was too 
far away to see clearly.

Chris Stainton although an excellent musician, was too prominent in the 
mix for my liking. Tim Carmen did very little which suited me. It 
appeared to me that EC cut short a TC solo that almost caught the band out.

Willie Weeks and Steve Jordan are great. Steve seems very busy on the 
kit and is good to watch. Great WW bass solo. During the early part of 
the acoustic section Steve sat on a box and drummed on its side. At one 
stage Steve finished a song with a huge thump on the drums which seemed 
to reverberate/echo for a few seconds - this was a fabulous effect.

The girls did a good job but once again the mix didn’t help them as much 
as it could have.

Got down to the stage after the concert and managed to get an EC Back 
Home Tour guitar pick from a very gracious Lee Dickson.

Usual T-shirts (AUD45), caps, programme (AUD30) and Road to Escondido 
(AUD30) for sale.

As I write this it sounds like the concert wasn’t too good but in fact 
it was but with a few disappointments, mainly from the venue sound 
system and mix. On the way home we played the Nov Osaka concert and my 
wife commented, “this is much clearer than what we had tonight”. A few 
of our friends thought the same. I may write to the venue operators as 
this is not the first time I felt this way when seated on that side of 
the stage. I seem to recall discussion a few years back saying EC didn’t 
do a sound check, well perhaps someone needs to on his behalf, just to 
make sure all is well.

I have a couple of snippets from the local press - 2 concert reviews and 
about EC dining at an Indian restaurant. If you email me privately I 
will send scanned copies in .pdf.

Coincidentally Roger Waters was in town for a concert 2 nights before 
EC, with Andy F-L in tow, doing Dark Side of the Moon. I have that press 
review also for those interested.

Cheers from Hubert in Adelaide, South Australia