POMRAČENJA

Eric Clapton - Guitar, Vocals
Doyle Bramhall II , Derek Trucks - Guitar
Chris Stainton , Tim Carmon - Keyboards
Willie Weeks - Bass
Steve Jordan - Drums
The Kick Horns: Simon Clarke, Roddy Lorimer, Tim Sanders on Brass
Michelle John , Sharon White- Backing Vocals


Setlist

Pretending
Got To Get Better In A Little While
I Shot The Sheriff
Old Love (with Robert Cray)
Everybody Oughta Make A Change
Motherless Children

sit down set
Back Home
I Am Yours
Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out
Running On Faith

After Midnight
Little Queen Of Spades
Further On Up The Road
Wonderful Tonight
Layla
Cocaine

Encore
Crossroads (with Robert Cray)

Opening Act:
The Robert Cray Band

BILO JE FENOMENALNO, BILO JE NEZABORAVNO, ČINILO SE KAO SAN KOJI ŽELIM SANJATI JOŠ BEZBROJ PUTA, BILA JE TO GLAZBA KOJA HRANI, DIŽE, POKREĆE, ISPUNJAVA...BIO JE TO KONCERT KOJI JE VRIJEDIO SVAKE POTROŠENE KUNE...
DA IMAM SREDSTAVA, PRATILA BI GA TIJEKOM CIJELE TURNEJE...NAŽALOST...NEMAM...



EVO JEDNOG OD UTISAKA KOJE SAM NAŠLA NA NETU


Review by Levente Borzsák, Budapest

An entree with novelties

18th July 2006, the first time EC comes to Budapest and the 5th time I see him live. Having seen him in Antwerp a month ago, I had mixed feelings. There, the show was almost stolen by this new, talented guitarist, Derek Trucks and I feared that the same might happen here, too.

Fortunately, the show was well balanced even with having sometimes 4 lead guitars on stage and Eric gave me his best concert ever!

'Pretending', 'Got to get better in a little while' and 'I shot the Sheriff' was performed without any breaks whatsoever, with the last tune bending into the next song. After the Sheriff was shot, Eric said a laconic "thank you" and invited Robert Cray on stage. This was one of the small novelties for me in the tour, I haven't heard them yet performing 'Old love' together, but boy, it was amazing! It was just pure blues from two very different musicians, with different styles, yet creating such a harmonic atmosphere that made this song one of the highlights of this night. Superb solos from both Eric and Robert leaving out this time the two other guitarists. This was also something that improved the show: not always forcing each guitarists to have a solo in each of the songs definitely maintained the tension instead of the Eric sings - EC solo - DT solo - DB solo - EC sings pattern, which made the concert in Antwerp less interesting. The intro to 'Everybody ought to make a change' was in the right key this time and 'Motherless children' was fast with great slide duelling between Eric and Derek.

The acoustic set was a perfect selection of old and new songs and I am beginning to accept the fact that EC prefers singing during these sets rather than presenting us with great acoustic solos. Derek plays instead accurate slide guitar solos and I have to say with each show he gets better and better! Having him in the band enaled Eric to return to the songs of "Layla and other assorted love songs", songs that have not been played on stage for so many years. 'I am yours' is definitely one of these songs which just transports me to a time when I was not even born, but which included songs I always wanted to hear live. 'Nobody knows you' was accompanied by enthusiastic clapping from the audience. Another novelty was projecting the show onto the huge background curtains in addition to the two big screens at each side of the stage.

After this melodic set of songs, an energetic 'After midnight' convinced the audience that the best is still to come. My favourite slow EC blues was 'Double trouble' performed at the Budokan Theatre in 1979, but I guess this night's 'Little queen' made the dethronisation of that song. It had great intro and a long solo in the middle of the song, which was sometimes blistering, sometimes smooth and came out of an undistorted black Strat reminding me of 'Blackie' and played by "the God" himself! It was simply the definition of the blues!

'Further on up the road' is one of my long time favourite and it was a nice surprise that they chose Budapest to introduce it in the 2006 setlist. Doyle showed that he can just as well inspire Eric into great solos as deliver great tunes himself.

'Wonderful tonight', 'Layla' and 'Cocaine' are always the favourites of the audience and it was no exceptions for Hungarians either. The last duelling tunes between Chris Stainton's piano and EC's guitar in 'Layla' bent into the well known riff of 'Cocaine', the last piece of the show. The images on the projector were distorted and delayed slightly to illustrate "the shape you are in".

The encore with Robert Cray was also unique. He started the first two verses of 'Crossroads', Eric took over the third one and they finished the last verse singing together standing side by side at the mike.
Eric enjoyed the entire show, I haven't seen him smiling so much in any of the concerts before. I guess it was during 'Everybody ought to make a change' when he was only mumbling the last words of a verse so he would not laugh in the micro.

With the encore they played for about two hours, however, if it depended on the audience they would still play on. After the bowing, Steve Jordan came to the mike for a short "Koszonom" - thank you in Hungarian - and the band was off, although the shouting and the clapping of the crowd was so loud, I was actually thinking that the magic had been broken and they would come back for another song.

Even so, these two hours of pure music was a fabulous entree for Eric to Budapest and we hope that the reaction of the audience gave him enough motivation to return.

Thank you Eric and best regards from Hungary!