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Protest in Guangzhou: Why would you burn garbage?
Barbie Spa: For the cosmopolitan plastic beauty in you
Obama in China: Long gone, and still headlinin'
We didn't go to Eric Clapton's Shanghai concert on Saturday night (we opted for Yunnan food) but luckily some Shanghai bloggers did go. Here's a snippet from Jakob Montrasio's report.
Just 10 minutes late the concert started at 7:40 p.m., Eric came straight on the stage with his band, no pre-band or something, and started playing right away a mix of three songs, including the beautiful ‘Why does love got to hurt so bad’. After this more then 15-minute long jam he finally greeted the audience and started to introduce the band members within the next songs, giving them also solos to show off their skills.He played some songs from his new album with J.J. Cale as well as older ones. Hits like ‘Wonderful tonight’, and he even played one song acoustic, just Eric and a non-electric guitar. Beautiful. Finally he brought the crowd from their seats playing the never boring ‘Layla’, people started to dance, walked in front of the stage, the highlight of the show. They played one song extra after leaving the stage the first time, then, after about one hour and fifty minutes, the concert was over.
Call me spoiled, go ahead, but I’ve seen two much better concerts from him in Frankfurt, Germany. The last time I saw him he had Robert Randolph as his pre-band and damn it, that was the best concert ever. First Randolph played for about an hour, then he played with Clapton together again, the concert was almost three hours long and the crowd went nuts, really.
You can see Jakob's photos here.
Another local blogger also thought the show was a little short:
It was a nice concert, but a little bit too short. In addition, I had excellent seats (Row 7). However, it was just a normal seated concert and not wild at all. They did not even serve beer and the crowd was very quiet. I am very sure that other concerts from Eric Clapton are different than the one here.
Did you go to the show? We'd love to see some more photos — and especially videos. A YouTube search turned up nothing.
UPDATE: A not-positive-at-all Shanghai Daily review of the show said people in the crowd were booing when the house lights came on after the final song. Ouch.
UPDATE II: Here is the set list for the Shanghai show.
Photo from dcdaytripper.
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Thanks for linking to my review.
But what Shanghai Daily writes is B.S., it was not that bad at all.
'He would do well to remember who made him a star in the first place'
What kind of crap is that?! Clapton got famous everywhere but China, come on, someone there thinks way too much of himself.
It was a good concert;it wasn't a great concert. Clapton's backup band was awesome and he gives them a lot of air time. I enjoyed seeing the less famous musicians. But there was no engagement with the audience and I felt Clapton threw the audience a bone (and a pretty small one at that) with the last three songs. He's old enough and rich enough to do as he pleases and if his heart isn't in rock and roll anymore so be it. But if I want to see incredible blues musicians I can do it cheaper and at more intimate venues than the Shanghai Grand Stage.
Maybe Mr. Williams wanted him to play Timepieces straight through, heh. Personally, I like those blues songs eg. Little Wing, Nobody Knows You, and Motherless Child. Too bad I couldn't see Eric play them - I bought a fake ticket outside the venue by mistake (sure seemed real on a dark, rainy night) and didn't have enough cash to buy a real ticket at that point. Ugh. Last time I try that...