Clapton! Winwood! Sick on the toilet! And Jeff joins the show too! (sorta)

 

Last night, in a power move, me, my immediate boss and my boss boss saw the Ayatollahs of rock play guitar…that is Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton at the Garden. The show was unbelievable. We did it all last minute adding to the excitement, and had great seats. This morning I couldn’t get ‘Tell The Truth’ out of my head. The raw emotion of Blind Faith could be heard throughout and Clapton’s seemingly unaffected by a look of effort and it is more than something to witness –I mean, I’m psyched I’ve gotten to see that in my life. He does alot more than just dance on the guitar, it’s like the guitar is playing his fingers! It’s that awesome!

Every song was good (from what I remember), though I missed the last half hour, which I’m upset about now, but it was unavoidable. Winwood sounded great and looked good with an aqua blue guitar. More importantly, he wasn’t drowned out or overshadowed by Clapton. It was like when Jordan used to make all the players around him better because he was so good. Clapton is unreal, unreal, unreal. Really! He’s that good. But it takes such talent to do that as well.

Now to the second part…well, I’ll let Jeff tell that part. He was at the show too. But apparently I was so wasted I couldn’t contact him (I was unable to text). The following is from an email he sent to me at work.

Never have I seen adam so wrecked that I could not move him to his room on a tuesday….the year of adam! Too bad you werent coherent enough to text me that we could have hung a bit at the show, i had a buzz going, it was one of the best i’ve seen in a while. you have to love the garden filled with people young and mostly old going nuts (some real yahoos too, wow), my father loved it so much. it was like a classic rock cover band playing everything except instead of some shmuck, it was the real deal, clapton is the best alive and jamming effotlessly and winwood has really kept up, he’s so underrated, great voice and B-3 player, awesome stuff, i hope you can remember some, i’ll jog your memory at least of where you were during the 15 minute voodoo chile.

I was drunk at the show. Yes. I knew it when I was carrying a beer back to my seat and couldn’t stop spilling it. My brain said hold the fucking beer still, man! But it wouldn’t stop spilling. Like in Jurassic Park when the water shakes…just a sign of things to come.

I’d had a few whiskeys with my bosses beforehand, which had led to us talking about the concert. I was already really drunk when I walked in. Later on I was spilling the beers and leaning against the concrete walls of the arena. I missed the end of the show cause I was in the bathroom (not because I was sick -I just blacked out. Though I’m not sure what’s worse.) They carried me home.  They propped me on the couch with the dishtowel. Which is where Jeff found me. I woke up the next day in my bed, thanking the lord I was alive (Jeff and my bosses too). I did not remember a thing.

It will be a great day when I look back and laugh at this. But it’s not gonna be for a while. They’re giving me shit at work, but what can you do. It’s in good fun and I’m pretty sure my bosses had a great time. Hopefully they won’t be scared to take me out again though I know every time they do what will be mentioned. For now I’ll have to live with it.

Setlist…

Tuesday 26 February, 2008

01. Had To Cry Today
02. Low Down
03. Forever Man
04. Them Changes
05. Sleeping In The Ground
06. Presence Of The Lord
07. Glad / Well Alright
08. Double Trouble
09. Pearly Queen
10. Tell The Truth
11. No Face
12. After Midnight
13. Split Decision
14. Ramblin On My Mind (EC solo acoustic)
15. Georgia On My Mind (SW solo hammond)
16. Little Wing
17. Voodoo Chile
18. Can’t Find My Way Home
19. Cocaine

Encore:
20. Dear Mr Fantasy

 

Here’s a write up from the Post….

http://www.nypost.com/seven/02272008/entertainment/music/keeping_the_faith_99452.htm

A final note: Jeff is a great writer. Inspired and informed. I’ve been trying to get him to write on the site for a long time, but to no avail. This was the best I could do for now. Hopefully he’ll continue. Any words of inspiration or fanaticisms or maybe you just like him…anything you think might help him get on board the abzme gravy train (and by ‘gravy’ I mean dirt water), please post in the comments.

Tags: Clapton, MSG, Throwing up on myself, Winwood