Few guitarists can claim such a vast catalog as Eric Clapton. Even fewer can boast an audience that spans generations. And fewer yet can claim to still have the skill and voice to play their classic tunes and make them still sound like classics.

Playing last week at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Clapton started out his concert with multiple songs from his new album, “Pilgrim.” The songs weren’t bad, but they just seemed to lack the power of classics such as “Cocaine” or the gracefulness and sheer beauty of slower songs such as “Tears in Heaven.” The new songs didn’t really seem to take full advantage of Clapton’s skill on the six-string. If they had been from some vanilla band, I think I would have been duly impressed, but I hold Clapton to a higher standard.

So, initially, I actually had a little doubt to whether it was time for Clapton to call it quits. But he soon proved me wrong. Though his age is definitely showing physically, his fingers and voice are still in perfect shape.

Both the vocals and his guitar work shone through when he played “Crossroads.” The bluesy electric piece sounded great in the Dean E. Smith Center, with its distinctive riff and layered instrumentation.

The rest of Clapton’s band has to be given credit as well. Everyone helped enhance Clapton’s sound without overpowering or being completely absent. The bassist was especially talented, prominently during “Crossroads.”

The only instrumentation that seemed extraneous was the orchestra seated at the back of the stage. I can only recall two times when I actually heard them play, and both times, I only heard them for a single drawn-out note. They didn’t seemed to be miked and didn’t carry naturally to the upper level where we were, without being totally drowned out by the more traditional rock instruments.

The highlight of the concert was definitely when chairs were brought out for the band and Clapton pulled out an acoustic guitar and proceeded to play “Tears in Heaven,” “Change the World,” a little bit of blues guitar and his famed unplugged/acoustic version of “Layla.” All of the acoustic pieces were impressive.

“Change the World,” notably, sounded good in concert. The backup singers meshed well with Clapton’s lead vocals and lead guitar. The version on the “Phenomenon” soundtrack is great, but the song is even better live.

The crowd got into “Tears In Heaven” and “Layla.” But Clapton got into the songs even more. His soloing on the acoustic guitar is only surpassed by his work on his electric Fender Stratocaster.

Clapton encore consisted of “Sunshine of Your Love,” ending the show on the bang. While he’s obviously been playing the song for decades, he still makes the song sound fresh and the riffs as crisp and catchy as they were originally on LP.

Overall, the concert was great. Clapton knows how to use a guitar — acoustic or electric — and can still sing like he was 20 years old. His new album isn’t spectacular, but he’s completely worth seeing him live in concert just to hear classics he chooses on any given night from his enormous catalog.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 24th, 2001 at 10:30 pm and is filed under Music, Music Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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