Slowhand in St Louis

[miner]

I traveled to see Eric Clapton in St Louis. One of five shows in North America. As expected, large venue, which I am not a fan of but wanted to see EC. Set was 16 songs with encore. Only three of the 16 songs were EC songs. He opened with two The Band songs to honor Robbie Robertson. Two electric sets, one acoustic set. He looked tired but at 78 who wouldn’t be. Voice was not as strong. The band was great; Andy Fairweather Low - guitar, Paul Carrack - keyboards, Sonny Emor - drums, Chris Staunton - piano, Nathan East - bass, Katie Kasoon - vocals and one other lady vocalist, Sharon Wilson. Encore was a song by Joe Cocker sung by Paul C. Opening act was Jimmie Vaughan. In retrospect, I was a bit disappointed but I got to see him. Set list was almost identical to previous shows. Why not mix it up some with all the great choices from his repitoire? I give it a 3.5 out of 5 for effort. Not GOAT, not God, just good.

[aclearspot]

Never seen him, but have read a few reviews of his live shows. Sometimes magic, sometimes he telegraphs it in. Van Morrison in the 80s-90s was the same. On a good night electric, other wise ho hum. Kinda like most humans or our music systems-LOL.

[Formerly YB-2]

Do agree, seeing in an arena setting is much less than ideal. But, he was there to make $$ and 20K seats is better for them than 3K. We were fortunate to see James Taylor put on an excellent show in a small venue in Barcelona a couple of years ago. Am sure we would not have felt the same in an arena setting.

[miner]

Originally Posted by aclearspot

Never seen him, but have read a few reviews of his live shows. Sometimes magic, sometimes he telegraphs it in. Van Morrison in the 80s-90s was the same. On a good night electric, other wise ho hum. Kinda like most humans or our music systems-LOL.

Saw one of those Ho hum Van Morrison shows in 2011 in a 3000 outdoor setting. Ranks in the top three disappointing shows.

[ptman]

We traveled to Boston to see Van Morrison, with Solomon Burke opening, in 2003. We had great seats...middle of the 4th row or so. Great opening by Solomon. Before Van came on, they placed a large LED clock offstage (but we could see it from our close seats) that began counting down from 90 minutes.

During his concert, he went from one song to another, and never said a word to the audience. When the clock hit zero, he was playing the sax and walked off stage still playing in the middle of the solo. The band closed out the song. No encore.

To me, it was bizarre and almost humorous. We love his music, and listen to him all the time; however, my wife still says "Van Morrison, what an a**hole".

[miner]

My experience with him mirrored yours ptman. Van even had the concession stands shutdown so no one would get up during the show for refreshments.