Eric Clapton

[AUsweetheart]

I saw him in Birmingham last night...great show, AMAZING show...but what I thought was weird? He didn't say anything to the audience, not one word. He just came out and played...which I am not sure if I appreciate or not. Does that imply to anyone else that he just doesn't give a damn?

[Saniflush]

Not sure.  I saw Carlos Santana a few years back and he basically did the same thing.  I took it as him being so into the music. 

[Tiger Wench]

I saw him in Birmingham last night...great show, AMAZING show...but what I thought was weird? He didn't say anything to the audience, not one word. He just came out and played...which I am not sure if I appreciate or not. Does that imply to anyone else that he just doesn't give a damn?

Saw Billy Joel and Elton John do that same thing.  And it is totally fine by me.  Every minute they speak is one less minute for me to hear the music I paid fifty gazillion dollars to hear. 

I HATE concerts where there are scripted moments for chit chat, lame jokes, etc.  Ad libbing and spontaneous reactions are fine - that's different.  And GOD FORBID that someone I paid good money to see should start into some political rant - in either direction - I did not pay for their opinion - I paid for the music.

I bet that was an awesome concert - I love Clapton.  He is one of the masters of his generation.

[BZ770]

I saw Elton and he had some interaction with the audience.  Seen Pearl Jam in 98 with no interaction with the audience, that show sort of sucked since it was a rock concert with no explosions lights etc.  My thoughts is that you need to engage your audience in the show to an extent to connect with them more.  Going to a concert is the whole experience,not just the music, imo.

[Buzz Killington]

Paul Stanley called us by name "Hey Birmingham!!!" multiple times.  Juss sayin.

[Saniflush]

Saw Billy Joel and Elton John do that same thing.  And it is totally fine by me.  Every minute they speak is one less minute for me to hear the music I paid fifty gazillion dollars to hear. 

I HATE concerts where there are scripted moments for chit chat, lame jokes, etc.  Ad libbing and spontaneous reactions are fine - that's different.  And GOD FORBID that someone I paid good money to see should start into some political rant - in either direction - I did not pay for their opinion - I paid for the music.

I bet that was an awesome concert - I love Clapton.  He is one of the masters of his generation.

Interesting.  When I saw them in Vegas on the Back to Back tour in 2001? ish they were both very talkative but in a good way.  Telling what had inspired each song or little known tidbits about each song.  Kind of the way "Storytellers" was.

[AUChizad]

I saw Elton and he had some interaction with the audience. 

I saw Billy Joel and he did the same.

[Tiger Wench]

Interesting.  When I saw them in Vegas on the Back to Back tour in 2001? ish they were both very talkative but in a good way.  Telling what had inspired each song or little known tidbits about each song.  Kind of the way "Storytellers" was.

Yes, I saw Back to Back as well and they did do this.  But a song intro is one thing.  Chit chat and long drawn out storytelling and such annoys me.

[AUsweetheart]

I saw Elton John in Texas...he talked some, not a lot, but I did witness his highness tell security to kick this "fag" out of the audience.

I don't want a bunch of freaking monologues in between songs, and God forbid a diatribe on politics, but I like a little background on a song or what he thinks of it now kind of shit.. I mean, SOME thing....but whatev, the music was fantastic and I danced my face off.

[Pell City Tiger]

I saw Clapton in Norfolk many years ago. He didn't do anything but jam. Outstanding concert!

I used to be a big John Mellencamp fan, back when he went by John Cougar/John Cougar Mellencamp. The last concert of his that I threw money at was Scarecrow. Out of 2 hours, he sang for maybe 45 minutes. The rest was preaching to us about the evil American government. Swore off him that night.

[Tiger Wench]

I saw Clapton in Norfolk many years ago. He didn't do anything but jam. Outstanding concert!

I used to be a big John Mellencamp fan, back when he went by John Cougar/John Cougar Mellencamp. The last concert of his that I threw money at was Scarecrow. Out of 2 hours, he sang for maybe 45 minutes. The rest was preaching to us about the evil American government. Swore off him that night.

THIS^^^

[wesfau2]

I saw him in Birmingham last night...great show, AMAZING show...but what I thought was weird? He didn't say anything to the audience, not one word. He just came out and played...which I am not sure if I appreciate or not. Does that imply to anyone else that he just doesn't give a damn?

I saw Clapton at Thompson-Boling in Knoxville in .....uh....round about 96-97.  Same exact scenario.

Here is the explanation I crafted to make myself feel like I didn't waste $40 (cuz the actual music was awesome...there just wasn't a "show"):

Eric Clapton is old.  Very old.  His target audience (apart from the guitar wankers) is pretty fuckin old.  You know what they want?  They want to hear the songs, get home in time for Matlock, eat their creamed corn, and go to bed.

His guitar work was flawless, but I see more and more "older" acts just going through the motions for that paycheck.  I'm not hating.  If I could pull $50-100K for standing on stage for two hours and just having soundcheck, then I would.