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Clapton Concert Details: Osaka Jo Hall 17 November 2003

17 Nov 03

Eric Clapton performed at Osaka Jo Hall in Osaka, Japan on 17 November 2003. It was the first of three shows in the city. Clapton’s tour of Japan runs through 13 December.

The complete set list was:

01. When You Got A Good Friend
02. Crossroads
03. I Shot The Sheriff
04. Bell Bottom Blues
05. Reconsider Baby
06. Can’t Find My Way Home
07. White Room
08. I Want A Little Girl
09. Got My Mojo Working
10. Hoochie Coochie Man
11. Change The World
12. Five Long Years
13. Kind Hearted Woman
14. Badge
15. Holy Mother
16. Lay Down Sally
17. Wonderful Tonight
18. Cocaine
19. Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
20. Layla
21. Sunshine Of Your Love (encore)
22. Somewhere Over The Rainbow (encore)

Band Line Up:
Eric Clapton – Vocals, Guitar
Nathan East – Bass
Steve Gadd – Drums
Andy Fairweather Low – Guitar
Chris Stainton – Keyboards

Concert Review by Jii Aoi

True to EC’s manner, four songs were dropped from the Hiroshima set, which has made the show two hour plus long. Considering the ommission of two long numbers, "My Father’s Eyes" and "River Of Tears", the show retained a fair length of duration, which reflects the change of the way they performed. Generally speaking, it was a more relaxed affair, more space introduced between notes, which gave the show the traditional EC feel. A number of songs were played longer than in Hiroshima, more or less, so did the solos-they were invariably short bursts on the previous show. In "Five Long Years", Eric allowed not only Chris but also Andy to do some solo, which didn’t happen in Hiroshima. In other word, the whole impression was bluesier than in Hiroshima where the perfornance reminded me of something of the All British Band days (1979-1982), as it were.

The audience was probably the most refrained of all the Osaka shows to this day, of which I have seen all but one. Those on the ground floor stood up to "Layla", at long last. Have we grown too old?