Dino-Rock and Middlebrow Blues: A Night of Sit-Down Fun with Eric Clapton

So I caught Clapton in concert Sunday night at the RBC Center in Raleigh. You can read the review here (written in about an hour and a half, immediately following the show to meet deadlines, so be kind). Ridiculous traffic going into the arena due to the presence of the State Fair across the street. Long story short, I spent 45 minutes on a single exit ramp, my car overheated, and I had to abandon it and walk the rest of the way to the show. Rockandfuckingroll, right?

Anyway, it was mostly your typical retrospective play-the-hits kind of show, perhaps a bit surprising for how liberally it drew from the '89 Adult-Contempo classic Journeyman (I'm betting that'll please Alfred). On one hand, Clapton's never been even good as a blues singer, and whether it was his advancing age or just the rigors of live performance he sounded even more pinched and hoarsely growly than usual (not to be confused with the equally-unpleasant but far more effective sinister snarl Jagger perfected in the 80s).

Luckily, there's still great passion and pyrotechnics in his axe. Clapton's even been ballsy enough on this tour to bring along hotshit guitarists Derek Trucks and Doyle Bramhall II and let them take frequent center stage for solos (with Trucks also performing Duane Allman's slide parts on the Derek and the Dominos selections). This is roughly equivalent to Magic Johnson challenging Dwyane Wade and LeBron James to a game of HORSE (if EC was pushing three bills of course), but clearly Slowhand's technique hasn't deteriorated nearly as badly as Magic's jumpshot and the sexagenarian more than held his own.

For a show full of 10+ minute blues-rock jams, it was a satisfyingly no-frills affair. Effects, banter, and set transitions were handled with a minimum of fuss, and only rarely did the solos tread towards tedium, mostly aiming for volume and thrills instead.