Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton in Toronto!

[Groovy Man]

different night, different venue

And different crowd....

''different night, different venue'', maybe that's it.

Let's see what Foxhound has to say later, maybe he could tell us more.

 

[Foxhound]

Before I post my own comments, here's another review that appeared on Monday in the "Toronto Sun":

It was definitely worth the wait, but it might not have been what some were expecting.

Legendary guitarists Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton shared the stage occasionally over their four decades in rock, but it was only recently that the former Yardbirds decided to join forces for a Together And Apart tour.

And Sunday night at Toronto’s sold-out Air Canada Centre – one of only four North American dates slated – both players bobbed and weaved with each other for an hour on material which they cut their teeth on in their early years.

After each guitarist completed their own roughly 50-minute set, Beck returned onstage with Clapton and his unspectacular but solid blues-by-the-numbers supporting cast for Shake Your Moneymaker, a boogie-fuelled romp which set the stage for what was to come.

Thankfully void of the “super group” mentality where players either timidly sit back or figuratively fight for extended, bloated solos, the dazzling Beck and the more deliberate Clapton alternated playing lead and rhythm on the seedy You Need Love. Here Beck, 65, playfully pretended to look at his wrist wondering when the duo would rein the song back in to close.

Although some of the selections definitely could have been fleshed out further, including the finale Crossroads, seeing the duo play off each other during Little Brown Bird atoned for Sly & The Family Stone’s I Wanna Take You Higher which was a tad short-shifted.


While perfectly complementing each other throughout, the pair could not have had more varied individual sets if they tried. Clapton, 64, opened his slot – basically Act Two of this three-act performance – seated for acoustic versions of Driftin’ and Layla, the latter getting a loud ovation despite being the lounge-y Unplugged rendition.

Early on Clapton’s nickname Slowhand could have been changed to Slowerhand as Running On Faith and I’ve Got A Rock ‘N Roll Heart did little to energize the audience. Yet when he stood up and strapped on his electric guitar, the muddy, bluesy nugget Key To The Highway, Cocaine and Bob Marley’s jewel I Shot The Sheriff easily upped the oomph factor.

As for oomph, it was hard not to view Jeff Beck’s slot as teeming with that intangible. Beck isn’t exactly in the same mainstream realm as Clapton is, but his body of work and frenetic style holds up with anyone. This was showcased often during his performance, one which featured a large orchestral ensemble just behind Beck and his three-piece band.

Beck, who is releasing a new album Emotion & Commotion in April, appears to thrive by pushing the boundaries. Whether it was on the fine signatures he doled out in Led Boots and the beefy Big Block, the performer also decided that the ill-advised operatic Nessun Dorma was worth doing.

Perhaps the set highlight was Beck and orchestra covering The Beatles’ A Day In The Life, with the rising walls of sound in the song majestically coming to life.

 

[Foxhound]

Finally, here's a review that should hit the streets tomorrow in one of Toronto's "alternative" newspapers, the "EyeWeekly":

In some ways, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton are so alike as to be the same person. Given the query “British rock guitar god,” only a seriously busted search engine would fail to return their names on the first page of results. On stage, though, in both their separate sets and together, you’d hardly know they had come from the same country, never mind been in the same band. Their musical interests sharply diverged following their respective (and mutually exclusive) mid-’60s stints in The Yardbirds, and while they found a small patch of common ground, Beck and Clapton’s joint Sunday night outing at the Air Canada Centre was like late-night channel surfing between two very different rock stations.

Picturing classic rock radio lovers’ horrified looks about half way through Jeff Beck’s set-opening “Eternity’s Breath” is a gift to non-purists that keeps on giving. “Wait, you mean there’s no singer? What is this, jazz?” Beck’s doggedly persistent journey into the far reaches of instrumental art-rock has hurt his profile on this admittedly anti-intellectual side of the Atlantic, but in the UK — and among middle-aged UK expats —fretboard workouts like “Led Boots” from 1976’s Wired are considered masterpieces. It’s not hard to see why. If you derive no warmth from his choice of material, wardrobe (the man dresses like a cross between Austin Powers and an aging personal trainer) or rhythm section (bassist Rhonda Smith’s slap-bass spunkathon), you can at least tell that Beck is a phenomenal technical player, mixing flurries of sharply articulated notes with wrenching dive-bombs that’d have Eddie Van Halen reaching for the acetaminophen. And if you’re a fan, you were in heaven — even Beck’s bewildering action-movie soundtrack–style takes on ageless melodies like “Corpus Christi Carol” and “Nessun Dorma” were received with reverence, while we colonials politely choked back hints of bile. There’s no accounting for taste, at least when it comes to British baby boomers. Four words: Paul McCartney solo albums.

It’s not surprising that Eric Clapton is the ex-Yardbird that, as a fledgling rock fan, this writer had heard of first. I’m guessing more people in the arena owned his 1994 disc From The Cradle than anything Jeff Beck ever played on, so the whoop that went up when Clapton launched into that album’s “Driftin’ Blues” was predictable — though, as the song went on, not at all earned. Clapton is wise enough to appreciate that acoustic blues can be just as ballsy as electric, if not more, but as a more genteel player, he’s rarely able to make it that way.

By contrast, the Unplugged arrangement of “Layla” fared far better, having aged better than anyone could have predicted; His rhythm section won the evening’s top prize, with drummer Steve Gadd laying right in the pocket and the organ/keys combo of Chris Stainton and Walt Richmond filling out the Stax and/or Hi sounds of “Running On Faith.” In acoustic mode, Clapton did best when he did less. And yet, when his electric came out, it was clear that Clapton hasn’t lost a step, rumbling through ”Key To The Highway,” leaving a smouldering hole in “Little Queen Of Spades” and ending on a satisfyingly brash “Cocaine.”

In the ensuing battle of the titans, Clapton evidently won home-field advantage, playing with his own band and filling the playlist with big-suit shuffle numbers like “Outside Woman Blues.” As a contest, it wasn’t so fair; Beck more than held his own during the blues repertoire, contrasting Clapton’s conservative licks with some acid-damaged note-bending, but his instrumental turn on “Moon River” sent chuckles through the grey-haired crowd, who were evidently horrified by the prospect of hearing a tune they associated with their own parents.

It was obvious how the pair see themselves differently: though his church is broad enough to encompass everything from latter-day B.B. King to Babyface, Clapton is basically a blues- and soul- purist trying to get ever closer to the most authentic expression of true grit; whereas Beck is a born innovator who knows enough licks to trade Blueshammer impressions with the best of them, but who would rather explore his own funky, acid-damaged innerspace. The place where their interests converged wasn’t “Crossroads,” which the Clapton band neutered by taking the psych out of the Cream version’s equation (probably at Clapton’s request), but their set-ending cover of Sly And The Family Stone’s un-castratable “I Wanna Take You Higher.” Clapton took the high road with countrified blues licks that sounded like Hendrix on good behaviour, while Beck rode his whammy bar off the stratosphere. Just think — if they made an album of psych/funk/rock that capitalized on their real-life common ground, it could save them both from their own late-career bugbears. Never mind giving it to my parents and ripping it to my iPod; I might actually buy a copy for myself.

 

[TheFeldster]

I still maintain that these reviewers expect way too much. I've seen Clapton live, and am a big fan of him, and I also enjoy Jeff Beck, and I'm confident I would have gone and had a good time at the show, regardless of the "lack of psych in Crossroads" or their "late career bugbears". Nothing beats a live show, in my experience.

Keep on rockin', guys

 

[Foxhound]

And different crowd....

''different night, different venue'', maybe that's it.

I think it's mostly a case of "different reviewers". Here are my own observations:

1. The joint "tour", immortalized already of course in t-shirts, was the second most curiously abbreviated tour of which I'm aware. (The Cream's reunion tour was the shortest.) This Clapton/Beck tour is confined to London, New York, Toronto and Montreal. Eric will now be performing a few concert dates with Roger Daltrey while Jeff is heading off to tour Australia with his band.

2. An old buddy of mine, Dave, and his older brother had come in from out of town for the show. Their college age kids had chipped in together to buy the two of them nosebleed tickets for the concert. The kids though had no interest in attending the show....

3. The stage was set up at one side of the rink. Floor tickets and lower level seats up to the end boards were all $225. I passed on the $225 tickets since the only ones that were still available ten days before the concert were in the corner seats at the opposite end of the rink. I had mixed feelings about attending the concert in a hockey barn but I finally broke down and bought a pair. Mine were $150 tickets fifteen rows up at the other end of the rink.

4. I'm not entirely convinced that the show was completely sold out. There might have been some empty $225 seats at the sides of the arena.

5. The view from that distance was helped along by a pair of TV screens although these weren't that big compared with the huge monitors at say Stones' concerts.

6. The tickets gave a start time for the concert of 7:30 PM and start at 7:30 it did with Jeff Beck taking the stage. He cleverly ensured a standing ovation when he came out by playing the first few notes of "Oh Canada", which of course had the crowd rising to their feet. He then broke into "Eternity's Breath".

7. He was accompanied by Montreal native Rhonda Smith on bass, a drummer and a twelve piece orchestra complete with conductor. No singer though. This is the fourth time I've seen Jeff in the last fifteen years and he's never had a singer so I wasn't surprised. I would of course have sneered at any less sophisticated fan who was expecting vocals. Jeff's style is to have his guitar take the place of vocals, substituting his notes for the words of a singer.

8. It was therefore Jeff's guitar playing that carried the melody on such classical pieces as “Corpus Christi Carol” and “Nessun Dorma”. He often used a whammy bar, a.k.a. a tremolo arm, and I found the notes that flowed so freely from his guitar to be both plaintiff and spellbinding.

9. He introduced his bandmates at one point and Rhonda Smith launched into an extended bass solo version of "Voodoo Child".

10. Jeff ended his set with his crowd pleasing cover of the Beatles' "A Day in the Life". He ended up playing for exactly 45 minutes.

11. But because there were no vocals, the focus of his set was entirely on his guitar playing. I therefore knew that Eric Clapton would be very hard pressed to top Jeff's set when it came to straight forward guitar playing.

But I think I'll go to bed now. I'll finish this off tomorrow.

 

[0000]

that picture is perfect lol

but more importantly, nice review, I can't say I like Jeff Beck at all, and I don't know if I'd pay 150$ to see Beck and Clapton... maybe, but probably not, I can't wait to hear the clapton portion of the review though

 

[Sox]

I have nothing but respect for both Eric and Jeff. I have seen them both a few times though never together and have plenty of their records. What niggles me is what is expected of them time and again, I hear folk in pubs slating Eric its like they put him on a pedestal just to knock him off. Jeff uses his guitar as his voice so there is bound to be more effort in his technique so as to keep the crowds attention, Eric sings and uses his guitar in responce and as an accompaniment two different styles.

 

[Flower]

that picture is perfect lol

I agree!

 

[Foxhound]

12. I had taken in a fabulous Eric Clapton concert at Maple Leaf Gardens in 1995(?) which consisted entirely of Eric covering old blues classics. A set of old blues classics into which Eric could intersperse searing guitar licks would have been a more than adequate way to follow-up Jeff's blistering fusion guitar set.

13. The break between Jeff's set and Eric's set wasn't much more than fifteen minutes. The fellow alley dweller known as Red that I'd brought with me was a big Eric Clapton fan and she was waiting for her idol's appearance with rapt anticipation.

14. Eric arrived backed by a bass player, drummer, Chris Stainton on keyboards (both piano and organ), another keyboardist who may have been handling both synthesizer and mellotron duties since I detected strings that I hoped weren't canned at points during Eric's set, and two black female backup singers. He never did introduce his band though.

15. The first two numbers Eric performed were acoustic - "Driftin' Blues" and the unplugged version of "Layla" which has always struck me as being a completely emasculated version of the original. After a set of Jeff's blistering guitar leads though, I found Eric's opening numbers to be a letdown.

16. Now Eric was never a great singer but he's evidently been losing his voice lately which is why he needed the backup singers to add some punch/projection.

17. After he electrified his most crowd pleasing numbers was the reggae influenced "I Shot the Sherriff" which Eric performed as a full fledged calypso number with the aid of his backup singers. It was about the liveliest number he performed.

18. He played "Cocaine" but I could not have found it all that inspiring because I just had to check to make sure it really had been part of his set. In fact, I didn't notice Eric playing any seering extended guitar solos at all. Red was disappointed in the omission of "Bell Bottom Blues" and "I Can't Stand It" from his set.

19. Eric played for about 45 minutes before being joined on stage by Jeff Beck. With both of these guitar legends sharing the stage together, I expected some serious joint guitar pyrotechnics. But it was not to be. Eric played the bandleader and front man, but Jeff was the hotshot young guitar god throughout the rest of the performance. While Jeff pealed off solos, Eric was content to strum rhythm guitar. Jeff was the flashy one, while Eric was workmanlike. I guess that's why they call Eric "Slowhand".

20. One of the numbers they performed was a very interesting instrumental cover of "Moon River" with Jeff's guitar and whammy bar taking the place of the vocals.

21. Their cover of Sly & the Family Stone's "I Want to Take You Higher" was a crowd pleaser. The backup singers certainly got into that one. My buddy Dave had a dissenting opinion though. He didn't think the tune was done justice without the presence of brass.

22. They performed a well received version of "Crossroads" as their encore in which Eric finally traded some guitar licks with Jeff.

23. They never did perform the original version of "Layla" though which was a big disappointment since Jeff was there to fill in Duane Allman's guitar parts. Neither did they perform Jeff's signature "Beck's Bolero" which was also quite the disappointment since Eric would have been there to fill in the guitar parts that Jimmy Page had originally added to the track.

24. The show was over by 10:35 PM.

25. Red professed her profound disappointment in Eric's performance. In her own words, Eric looked "old and tired" in comparison to Jeff. She had come in with the expectation that Eric would prove to be the star of the show but she left with a newfound appreciation for Jeff.

26. My buddy Dave disagreed. He thought Eric was just fine. But Red and I later agreed that since Dave had probably not seen a big time act for over thirty years and had never even seen any kind of event at the Air Canada Centre, he wasn't going to be difficult to impress.

27. Now Jeff Beck has for many years been my favourite guitarist so I wasn't the least bit surprised. But I'll reiterate a point I've made on a number of occasions. Jeff delivers his best music playing for someone else. Whether for the Yardbirds, Donovan ("Goo Goo Barabajagal"), Rod Stewart ("Infatuation"), Buddy Guy ("Mustang Sally") or Mick Jagger, that's when Jeff comes off the best musically. Unfortunately, Jeff doesn't take direction well from others. That's why he could never have made beautiful music as part of the Rolling Stones for very long. Mick and Keith being control freaks, Jeff would sooner rather than later have ended up clubbing one of the two over the head with his guitar.

It's therefore a good thing that Jeff typically needs no direction when it comes to adding the guitar parts that take a song from the ranks of the very good to the transcendent. The problem is that on his own he very rarely provides himself with any good songs. His signature piece, "Beck's Bolero", was actually written by Jimmy Page. Jeff is a great guitarist, but his music is too outré to capture the imagination of the record buying public. Sometimes I actually think he should be left to experiment by himself in the basement of some monastery.

28. So my final verdict was the same as the one I held before buying the ticket - Jeff is the better guitarist, but Eric remains the better musician.

 

[Foxhound]

This was the review published in the "Montreal Gazette" on their show the following evening in Montreal:

If it took this long for Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck to get their sea legs, more's the pity that last night's Bell Centre concert was the last on their four-city mini-tour. For two and a half hours, the guitar-slinging legends played up a storm --- separately and together --- ending it all with a hug and then calling it a night.

Clapton begins a U.S. tour with Roger Daltrey Thursday and will have no time to reflect on what this short fretboard sprint with Beck really meant. The pre-Montreal reviews were not, to put it kindly, leaning toward enshrining the collaboration. But judging from last night's performance before 11,500 fans, a second opinion needs to be entered into the record.

While one might quibble with the set list here and there, moments of six-stringed inspiration and steel-bending beauty were what really dominated the evening. If objections tend to run along the lines of "They could do this in their sleep," the only question can be "You expect Beck and Clapton to break a sweat while soloing?" They did not struggle. They played --- and beautifully.

Beck was up first with a 45-minute instrumental set featuring an orchestra and his small band. Opening with the loud fuzzy riff that launches Eternity's Breath, he soon found himself challenged by the Bell Centre's acoustics from hell, which certainly did no favours to the string players, either. Still, Beck's inventiveness and incomparable phrasing slashed through the murky sound, as a blizzard of notes filled the arena with squeals, shrieks, cries of alarm and quiet weeping from his trusty Fender Strat. Redoubtable bassist Tal Wilkenfeld was absent for this tour, replaced by Montreal native and former Prince bassist Rhonda Smith. Ending with his already-beloved version of A Day in the Life and, of all things, Nessun Dorma, Beck left most of the room standing and cheering.

Following Puccini with Charles Brown, Clapton launched his unplugged four-song set opener with Driftin' Blues. Following that exquisite performance with dodgier selections like the dreaded acoustic Layla and I've Got a Rock n' Roll Heart flirted with disaster, but Clapton's band provided a seductive swing that elevated the material. Special kudos goes to the always-indispensable Chris Stainton's organ work.

The electric section of Clapton's set might have evoked wistful memories of a superior show he headlined at the Bell Centre almost two years ago, but it was hard to argue with the purity of tone in his soloing on I Shot the Sheriff or with the way he shifted without warning to a higher key in a sublime version of Robert Johnson's Little Queen of Spades and started spraying notes everywhere.

A final set with both guitarists was, at times, frustratingly short on interplay between the two. For much of it, Beck stepped up and Clapton sang, notably on a wonderful, slightly bluesy take on Moon River. But on a joyous Outside Women Blues and a set-closing I Want To Take You Higher, some sparks flew between the two.

Beckologists who knew Hi-Ho Silver Lining was on the set list as an encore might have been disappointed that it was skipped in the long run, but the sole encore, a celebratory Crossroads, showed just how much wisdom there was in the bringing together of two ex-Yardbirds.