clapton report

here's a different take on the clapton concert than the kc star's. submitted by correspondent joe jenkins:

Clapton at Kemper April 2 .
If one came to see EC play his pop hits you were likely disappointed last night. No I Shot the Sherriff, no Lay Down Sally, no Tears in Heaven. Personally, I was dreading a set list dominated by the hits. No worry. Eric was all about the blues last night. The only real pop hit in the set was Wonderful Tonight. Mostly blues standards like Key to the Highway, Drifting Blues, Nobody Loves You When Your Down and Out, Further On Up the Road etc. EC and his second guitarist Doyle Bramhill played these songs about as well as they can be played. Several songs from Derek and the Dominoes album including a cover of Jimi Hendrix' Little Wing. Nice acoustic set in the middle. Crowd really went nuts with Layla. Kemper sound was muddy as usual but seemed to get better as the night went on or maybe I was just able to wrap my ears around it. Strong encore with Cocaine and Crossroads. I enjoyed the guitar fireworks on stage and though no expert it sure seemed like Clapton's playing was as good as ever. But many in the capacity crowd seemed restless and people were headed for the exits before the encore. Not sure why. Clapton did not say much. But I expected that. He's always been a shy performer. I think he sometimes would love to just be a musician in a band instead of the front man. Maybe many in the crowd wanted to hear the hits or it's just the state of short attention spans. At his core Eric Clapton is a bluesman and he proved it last night. Good show.