What amazed me about this show is that I got to see it – and pretty damn close up (as you can see). I had friends who bought tickets months ago like this was gonna be the second coming. I applied for a media ticket though my media credentials would not get very noticed in the behemoth that is Live Nation but I’m thinking they have a certain allocation of media tickets and if some of the big boys like the Star and the Globe do not use them then they might trickle down to this little Blues newsletter. Except the Star and Globe were there – and I was sitting next to the Star. At one point I tried to make some media small talk with Nick Krewen, the Star scribe and I asked what he thought about the latest news that Drake had just posted an old video of his dad playing at Danny Marks Stormy Monday jam at Albert’s Hall. He said “I wrote it!” Ooops. I have since looked it up and also read his terrific review of the Clapton concert….except he didn’t say anything about Jimmie Vaughan except that he joined EC for the encore. Maybe Jimmie’s set was not the kind of “wow factor” that you expect in an arena show but for guitar aficionados, he delivered and I expected I would enjoy his set more than Eric, but EC did a full tilt blues show, interspersed with a couple of his hits, it he’s got the “wow factor.” And, as I noted in a comment to a Facebook post, he has that immediately identifiable tone and touch that every guitar player strives for. Jimmie had it too and played some great solos. Twice I noticed he started playing with his guitar volume down but he quickly adjusted. He hardly said a mumbling word, but when he dropped in a line about Toronto “I guess I’ll have to move here” I was thinking “I don’t think so” because the last time I saw him live was at Harbourfront in the 90s where he started his set with a tirade about how much trouble he had crossing the border and saying he was never coming to this country again.
Like I said, I went more for Jimmie than Eric and I went with the intention of buying some merch (I was going to get myself a birthday present (77 yesterday!) but wouldn’t you know there was no Jimmie Vaughan merch. Nothing. And there wasn’t a lot of variety of Clapton merch, a selection of 60 dollar t-shirts and that was about it.
And EC didn’t have a word to say, either. He didn’t even say anything about the recent passing of his friend Robbie Robertson but rather spoke through his guitar and started the show with two Band songs. Maybe some folks were relieved that he didn’t talk to the audience lest he starting going on about vaccines and mask mandates. He became a bit of a poster boy for anti-vax but that did not surface and just as well. Some have surmised that some fans might have skipped the show but it was pretty well sold out.
For more about the music I would direct you to Nick's review in the Monday Star