The independent., March 03, 2011, Page Page 24, Image 24

Page 24
The INDEPENDENT, March 3, 2011
Eric Clapton “awesome” in Portland show of his World Tour 2011
Eric Clapton and His Band at their show on Moday, February
28.
by Clark McGaugh
Guitar legend Eric Clapton
and His Band played the Rose
Garden Arena in Portland Mon-
day night. Los Lobos opened
for Clapton and did a good job
of warming up the crowd with a
fifty minute set.
With Los Lobos’ three great
guitar players – Cesar Rosas,
David Hidalgo and Louie Perez
– there was a lot of guitar ac-
tion. One of the high points was
the smoking guitar of Perez on
the Grateful Dead cover
“Bertha”. It was also entertain-
ing to see and hear Steve
Berlin simultaneously playing
both a saxophone and key-
boards. Other songs included
Jerry Garcia’s “Evangeline” and
a blended version of their sig-
nature song, Richie Valens’ “La
Bomba” plus “Turn on Your
Love Light” which enticed the
crowd to join in.
Clapton was phenomenal.
As the only guitarist in the
band, he shared the lead and
rhythm with veteran musicians
Chris Stainton and Tim Carmon
on keyboards. It was easy to
hear why Clapton is the only
guitar player to have been in-
ducted three times into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It
was also obvious that he has
continued to perfect and ex-
pand his capabilities as he
adds new arrangements and
leads to a variety of songs from
his 46 years of recording.
The group’s total of 17 songs
started with “Key to the High-
way”, a song Clapton first
played with Derek and the
Dominos. Clapton’s vocals
were in fine form, too, as he
belted out the lyrics to “Hoochie
Coochie Man”. The fans really
responded to “I Shot the Sher-
iff”. Other favorites included
“Layla”, “Badge” (really awe-
some), “Wonderful Tonight” and
the set-ending “Cocaine”.
After a very short time off
stage, they came back to en-
core with an amazing version of
“Crossroads”.
Portland was Clapton’s
eighth stop in a 38 show world
tour that started February 11 in
the United Arab Emirates, and
was followed by shows in Sin-
gapore, Thailand, Hong Kong,
South Korea, Vancouver B.C.,
and Seattle.
Clapton shows some of his guitar work during the acoustic
portion of his show.
Don’t
forget
to turn
your clocks
for ward on
March 13
for the start
of Daylight
Savings
Time.