Eric Clapton/Steve Winwood at the Garden

Sat, March 1, 2008

Good Day Everyone!

 

Well, this posting is a bit overdue but it's been another crazy week with very little free time. However, the week started off in the best possible way as on Monday night, we were at Madison Square Garden to see EC and Steve Winwood. What a fantastic, musically historic event that was. EC was in fine shape--playing with "fire" which I haven't seen or heard from him in awhile. He's always great, mind you, but on this show, his playing was just exceptional. And Steve Winwood hasn't lost a thing. His vocals and playing were as good as ever--maybe even better than in some of his earlier days. They did numbers from Traffic, Derek & the Dominos, Blind Faith, Powerhouse, various solo selections and Jimi Hendrix. They did 3 tunes associated with Jimi: Little Wing, in a similar arrangement--but not exactly--to the Dominos version; Them Changes, which was written by Buddy Miles and performed by Jimi and Buddy when they had the Band of Gypsys (Buddy Miles passed away on Tuesday of this week, less than 24 hours after EC and SW performed this song for the first time); and a wonderful and mind-blowing version of Voodoo Chile (not to be confused with Voodoo Child) from Electric Ladyland, on which of course Steve Winwood had played the original organ track. I could really go on and on about this show ... just purchase the dvd when it's available. I've already gotten a bootleg from the show. They also played Tuesday and Thursday nights but I was very happy just to be able to see the one show. I've seen Cream and pretty much Blind Faith and also the remaining members who played with Jimi (I actually met Mitch) so I can die a happy man (not that I'm ready to go just yet--still a lot of shows to play).

On Tuesday we went down to the Village and Ruth-Ann, Christine and Dr. Bill and I visited all of my favorite haunts--Electric Lady Studios, Cafe Wha?, Washington Square Park (all dug up at the moment which sucked), Bleeker and MacDougal--you know all the usual tourist spots (just kidding). Actually, I want to extend a big thank you to my friends for putting up with my desires to visit those places. It was cold and windy and we walked quite a bit so thanks guys! We had an awesome meal in a great Irish cafe (near the old Gaslight/Kettle of Fish) so I think that made up for any inconvenience that the weather may have presented.

All-all, it was a great time and I'm looking forward to my next trip to NYC--which is actually next Saturday night, March 8th. We're playing in Brooklyn with Simone at a venue called Sputnik--but that'll be another blog.

Enjoy your weekend.

— Craig

 



 
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