Concert Details

Fan Reviews:

Review by Ernie Terga

Eric Clapton ‘"The Master of The Stratocaster", graced the stage at Madison Square Garden and performed flawlessly to a capacity crowd in NYC both Thursday and Friday night. Regretfully, his set list reflected more like a retrospect of his entire 40+ year career. Unfortunately for this student of his music, he borrowed to much from his pop years, and to little from that formidable period when the world thought he was god.

However to Clapton’s credit, this student also recognizes the mind and hands of genius. His aim for truth through his guitar through out the evening, was delivered with pin point accuracy. Even though some of the selections were weak, the execution was flawless. Tired and over played songs like "My Father’s Eyes", "Cocaine", "Layla", the sappy and painfully boring "Wonderful Tonight", and the Quaalude "esk" sleeper, "Tears in Heaven" were jammed and developed brilliantly. Thankfully, I recall forgetting that Eric was in "His Father’s Eyes" and was instead found in a progressive, melodic blues jam that easily brought the capacity crowd on 34th street to their feet.

Possessed like a demon and focused like a lazar, Clapton delivered showstoppers like "Bell bottom Blues", "Stormy Monday", "Key To the Highway" and "Crossroads" fast, hard, and furious.

The selections from the new album were fresh, cool, and slick. I believe that once you get rid of the cheesy, commercial, overproduced arrangements on his latest cd "Reptile", the songs will stand the test of time, and will hold their own as respectable, and credible contributions to his magnificent career.