[Slowhand] Another San Jose review

[Richard Batty]

I was fortunate to have a great seat (11th  row - thanks again, Mel!)
at last night's San Jose show.

I can't add a lot to Jim Jackson's great review (Hey, Jim, long time
since we traded CDs).
I've been lucky enough to see EC quite a lot since 1998 rather than my
one-show-per-tour back to 1974.

Unlike Jim, I have been reading reviews regularly and downloading
shows, so I knew what to expect.  The one surprise was that the recent
alternating of "Why Does Love.." with "Anyday" changed with us getting
the former last night. I would have love to hear "Anyday" but "Why
Does Love" was probably my favorite song from the Layla album when I
bought it back in 1970 (?)  This version was magnificent.  I play the
Dominos Fillmore versions a lot but this version was right up there.
The energy of the first part of the song, the initial Eric solo, the
Derek Trucks slide and an absolutely beautiful coda.

"Key" is great with this new arrangement.  "Got to Get Better" has a
different feel to the Fillmore versions, more funky, but equal energy.
 I'm motivated to go back to the Fillmmore versions of "Tell the
Truth" - what a great opener.  And Jim expressed my own feelings about
"Little Wing".  How incredible to hear it with "Why Does Love" and
"Tell the Truth" live for the first time.

The energy of the first five songs was probably unmatched by any show
I have ever seen.  (The Cream Royal Albert Halll Reunion shows had it
but part of that was due to the miracle of the reunion).  The
remainder of the show did not quite match those first five songs for
me but that may be because I've seen "Layla", "Wonderful", "Cocaine"
and "Crossroads" many times.  Starting with the great energy of an
encore, I actually thought "Cocaine" dragged a bit with the 5 jazzy
solos it featured.  Even though I think, IMHO, "Crossroads" can suffer
from always being compared to that Winterland performance of a
lifetime, it was great to see Eric have Robert Cray sing the first
verse.

It is always great to see EC alone with an acoustic guitar too and
"Driftin'" provided that. Hats off for giving us "Outside Woman Blues"
acoustic.  I've always loved "Running On Faith" (that 24 Jan 1990
final cascading solo is just so good) but Doyle's solo at the end was
a little disappointing.

How great to hear "Little Queen of Spades" become the centerpiece of
the show.  To me it's ironic that when EC finally does a "Dominos"
show, the song played as much as "Layla" over the years ("Have You
Ever Loved...") is replaced with this one.  Solos for everyone but an
intro and final solo from EC that exemplifies why we keep going to see
him.

While Derek Trucks' solos don't touch me quite like EC's (whose do?),
he had to be the perfect choice to bring the Dominos songs to life -
as if Duane had been there.

One other thought, it would have been great to hear "Keep on Growing"
with this band.

While, as I posted recently, I'm always greedy to hear EC play as much
as possible (i.e. a 4-piece band), enormous credit to EC for providing
a "band" experience, for giving us this whole new setlist and sharing
the stage.  Off to Sacramento tomorrow - will be interesting without
DT.

Rick