I am jealous beyond belief of Timothy Sandefur right now, after reading his report on seeing Eric Clapton at the Hollywood Bowl this weekend. I've seen Clapton only once, in 1990, but it was one of the best concerts I've ever seen. No opening act, but the concert still lasted nearly 3 and a half hours. And even after that long, we were still able to pick out a dozen big songs he hadn't played, which is testament to the duration and quality of his career.
Timothy reports that Robert Randolph was the opening act for this show. If you haven't heard this guy, you need to. I've been saying for a while now that funk is on the verge of a comeback, and this guy should be leading the way. Just a huge talent. He also reports that Doyle Bramhall was playing with Clapton's band, which would have been a wonderful surprise to see. He's long been a favorite of mine and I can definitely see the master/apprentice relationship that Sandefur alludes to.
The thing I loved about the Clapton show that I saw was that there was virtually no artificial showmanship to it. No moving stages, no explosions, no laser light show or anything like that. Just an incredible band (the band he's touring with now is similar, with the brilliant Steve Gadd and equally brilliant Nathan East on drums and bass, but with the legendary Billy Preston replacing Greg Phillinganes on keyboards and the addition of Bramhall) playing incredible music. The lighting was tasteful and understated and the focus was purely on the music itself, which is where it belongs.
Postscript: Timothy follows up here with a note I should have mentioned in my initial post. There are in fact two Doyle Bramhalls, father and son. The father was the drummer for Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble and other legendary blues artists like Lightning Hopkins. The son is the guitarist now touring with Clapton. I knew he was referring to the guitar playing son rather than the drummer father, and I urge people to check out his previous guitar work with the Arcangels, a band he formed with Charlie Sexton and the Double Trouble rhythm section. Very good work for such young musicians.
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