You got me on my KNEES!

A week or so ago, we were invited to go to the Eric Clapton concert. The show was last night, and as I sat there listening, it dawned on me that Eric Clapton is definitely one of those under appreciated artists (at least by me) - who you actually really like, but who just doesn't come to mind that often. I realized with shock that there is not one song of his on my iPod (and I have about 2000 songs on it)?!?!

It's particularly odd because one of the albums that was part of the soundtrack of my freshman year at college was his greatest hits collection, Timepieces. I knew that damn CD inside and out. 'Tears in Heaven' (one of the saddest songs EVER) and 'Running on Faith' were also favorites in the following years (he played the second but not the first, which I'm glad about because I would've bawled my head off), and of course 'Wonderful Tonight' (probably one of the most romantic songs out there, which he also played last night) was the theme song of many a high school prom (including mine). His is just one of those voices that I enjoy no matter what he's singing.

Some things I have to complain about a little bit, however, were the never-ending jam sessions and prolonged guitar solos. My husband was very excited because there were some renowned guitarists playing on stage with Eric: Robert Cray, Derek Trucks and Doyle Bramhall. Unfortunately for me, they could've been Larry, Curly and Moe and I wouldn't have known the difference. All I knew is that I was extremely tired going in to the concert, and found it hard to keep myself from zoning out when these musical interludes kept going ON and ON and ON.

So I found a few other things that kept my attention, and/or distracted me. First, there were two huge video screens hanging down on either side of the stage. The one closest to me was fine and stable, but the one on the left side of the stage was swinging back and forth precariously. Since it is my nature to assume that the worst is going to happen, I just kept envisioning this screen dropping from the ceiling and crushing all of the people below. Luckily that did not happen, but it never stopped swaying around the entire show, and I actually heard other people commenting on it on the way out. Then every once in a while the backdrop of the entire stage became a video screen, but the problem was that it was just a few beats off of the two other monitors on the side of the stage. That was driving me NUTS. I have been known to spot fractions of a millisecond of audio/video mismatches, so you can imagine my frustration. I mean, who is running these things at the United Center? You would think they would have their act together?!?!

Anyway, I DID enjoy the show despite those issues. I also realized that his was one of the first old-school concerts I've been to in a while - no crazy dancers and performers and graphic effect shows and props (a la Madonna), no crowd gimmicks (a la Coldplay), just Clapton and his boys and his backup singers having a good time. He sang many of the songs I know and love, and even those I didn't know, I enjoyed. He was just in jeans and a button down, and seemed like a really down-to-earth guy. Why I got this impression I can't really say, because he literally - I kid you not - said three words to the audience over the course of about 2.5 hours (aside from band members' names). They were: "Hey!" "Yo!" and "Thanks!" A man of few words, there's not enough of those out there.

- e