August 18, 2001 Eric Clapton
On May 6, when the tickets were sold, I was at Tower Records on the Sunset Strip to buy it, 'cause I thought that this concert tour might be the last tour for E.C. (Eric Clapton). In the rumors, he'll retire after this tour, so I bought it despite the expense; it was $85.00.
This concert was after an interval of 6 years since the last time that I saw his live concert, in 1995 at Yoyogi Olympic Pool, Tokyo. At the last venue of the North America Tour, Staples Center, there was no check for anything: camera, recorder, and some guys even smoked inside, so I felt the aroma of marijuana during the show.�
At 9:00 pm, E.C. entered the stage alone, sat down on a chair in the middle of the stage, took his acoustic guitar, and began to play the first song "Key To The Highway" which is a blues classic. Continuously, the band members entered the stage and they played the instrumental number "Reptile" and "Got You On My Mind" also from the new album. The next songs were "Tears In Heaven", my favorite "Bell Bottom Blues", the hit song "Change The World" and the first half's acoustic set was finished.
E.C. stood up and changed to the electric guitar; his Fender Stratocaster, and then played "My Father's Eyes","River Of Tears","Going Down Slow","She's Gone" and "I Want A Little Girl".
"Badge" was so good, especially the keyboard and organ players, and of course E.C. too, and also the next song which was Muddy Waters' cover song, "Hoochie Coochie Man". I thought the best performance of the night was "Have You Ever Loved A Woman". Their improvisation including the order of the solo keyboard, organ and guitar, was excellent.
Everyone in the audience was pleased with "Cocaine" and "Wonderful Tonight", and then they played the last song. The intro was one of the most famous guitar riffs of rock history; the number "Layla".
The audience requested more, and the band entered the stage again, but for the first song in the encore, E.C. didn't sing the song; the organ player sang. The song was "Wll It Go 'Round In Circle" and I understood that the organ player was the 5th Beatle, Billy Preston. The second song of the encore was Cream's "Sunshine Of Your Love" and E.C. introduced the band members and at last Billy introduced Eric Clapton. The very last song was a version of the old song "Somewhere Over The Rainbow"
I appreciated the "Wonderful Tonight" and E.C. sang a lot of songs, but I thought that if he had sung fewer it would have been better.
He is a great guitarist that people once called "God" for his playing; his vocals aren't so bad, but I prefer his guitar playing, 'cause he can sing songs through his guitar.
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