Eric Clapton Concert Review

Welcome to the fourth season of the Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast! In this episode, I'm reviewing an unforgettable night at Madison Square Garden where Eric Clapton performed a 16-song set. This concert featured a mix of classic blues covers and Clapton's iconic hits. Of course I get into a little context first,  reflecting on Clapton's musical evolution and significant influence on rock-n-roll, and my experience with seeing him live as well.

I have lots of good clips from the show, and then after the review, I wrap up with my tribute to Jerry Collins, this podcast's biggest fan, who attended this show as his first rock concert  - at the age of 82 - just a few months before he passed. 

Join me for an in-depth review, some great concert clips, and a few touching memories, all this week on the Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast! 

00:00 Welcome to the Rock and Roll Show

01:02 Eric Clapton: A Legendary Career

06:34 The 2025 Madison Square Garden Concert

09:27 Eric Clapton Takes the Stage

14:27 Acoustic Set

25:20 Encore and Final Thoughts

29:20 Tribute to Jerry Collins

31:02 Closing Remarks and Playlist

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Transcript

0:00

Welcome to the fourth season of the Rock and Roll Show podcast. I'm your host, Alex Gadd, and this week I've got another concert review for you. I went to see Eric Clapton at Madison Square Garden in New York City recently, where he played a solid 16 song show after a short but impressive opening set by the wallflowers. I wasn't sure what to expect from Clapton at this stage of his career as he tours less and less these days, but it was a special night for me and I can't wait to tell you all about it. So please join me for my Eric Clapton concert review coming up right now. Before I jump into the review, I wanna let you know that at the end of this episode, I'll be paying tribute to a special person, and this show's biggest fan. So please do stick around for that now as I normally do. Let me start off by giving you a little bit of an overview of my experience with Eric Clapton. I've been seeing Clapton live since 1983 when he headlined the Ronnie Lane Appeal for ARMS Benefit Show, which was also at Madison Square Garden, and that's also where I saw him the last time in 2018. In between. I've seen him many times and he's always been one of my favorite artists. I find both his ability to interpret classic blues tunes and to write modern blues and pop songs equally impressive. Plus, it's hard to ignore how foundational he is as a guitar player in the rock and roll era. He's influenced everyone from his own peers to entire generations that followed. You can draw a straight line from Clapton to players like Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and Edward Van Halen, who often cited Clapton as his biggest influence. Clapton's fingerprints are everywhere in rock and roll. He's always been known as a bluesman, first and foremost, and that reputation was formed in the 1960s. His two biggest contemporaries at the time were the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. The Beatles started out inspired by R&B, Elvis, and Chuck Berry. The Stones openly declared themselves a blues band, but both groups exploded so quickly that they were almost forced to pivot towards originals leading the way to creating the music that we now call classic rock Clapton took a different path. He arrived on the scene with the Yardbirds in 1963, and while that band shared the same love of the blues as the Stones did, everything changed once they scored their first major hit, which was"For Your Love" in early 1965, Clapton apparently had no interest in chasing mainstream success, so he walked away and joined a different band. John Mayall's Blues Breakers committing himself fully to the blues at a time when everyone else in music was moving away from it. His stint with the Bluesbreakers lasted just over a year. Then he left to form Cream, the first true rock super group and one of the earliest power trios. With Cream. Clapton began singing publicly for the first time and expanded his musical vocabulary, dipping into psychedelia and longer form improvisation while keeping the blues at the core. But Clapton never seemed comfortable staying in one place for long. He left Cream in 1968 around the time he became the first outside rock musician to appear on a Beatles recording, laying down the now legendary solo for"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" from the white album. From there, the pattern continued. He founded Blind Faith with Steve Wynwood and Ginger Baker, and that lasted one album in a short tour, then Clapton and spent a period as a high profile sideman with a band called Delaney and Bonnie and Friends. And he also played with John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band. After that, he founded Derek and the Dominoes with the rhythm section from Delaney and Bonnie, and that band also famously brought Dwayne Allman from the Allman Brothers into the fold as the second lead guitarist. But nothing Clapton did, stuck for long. That inability or unwillingness to settle into a band, eventually pushed him into becoming a full-time solo artist by 1974. From there, he started exploring other musical styles, while he never abandoned the blues. He dabbled in country and reggae in the seventies. Then pop in the eighties, nineties and beyond. While he dipped his toe into all those other styles, the blues always remained at his foundation. I started seeing Clapton regularly during his mid eighties era when his sound shifted towards a more glossy, heavily produced rock sound. That period centers on the albums Behind the Sun from 1985 and August from 1986. It's also when his band evolved, moving away from the earlier lineup that had Jamie Oldaker on drums, Chris Stainton on keyboards and Duck Dunn on bass towards Phil Collins on drums, Greg Phillinganes on keys and Nathan East on bass. That personnel change played a huge role in shaping the slicker, more polished sound as represented by those two albums that I mentioned. Those were great tours and he carried that approach through the rest of the decade, culminating in Journeyman, his most successful album of the eighties. But then tragedy struck when his young son, Connor, died in New York City in 1991. After that, Clapton dramatically changed direction. That new chapter began the next year with 1992's Unplugged, which became his bestselling album ever. Sold over 10 million copies in the US alone. He followed that with a blues covers album From the Cradle in 1994, and that became his second bestselling release ever. I saw the tour for that album, which was entirely blues songs, and it was amazing. After that, I didn't really see him again until 2018 and honestly. I'm not really sure why. He plays the Garden almost every year. I think life just got in the way from me raising kids, working and doing what most of us do, trying to keep everything moving forward. The 2018 show I saw was solid but not great. By then Clapton had settled into a format he's largely stuck with ever since. A short electric opening set, followed by an acoustic middle section that calls back to Unplugged, and then a final stretch of classic hits and a one song encore. 14 to 16 songs and all touching most of his major eras. It works, but it also doesn't quite reach the level of what his remaining peers, specifically Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones are doing these days. They're playing two to three hour shows in stadiums. The difference might be that Clapton is suffering from peripheral neuropathy, which makes playing guitar more difficult for him these days, and yet he still plays shows every year, whereas those other acts. Maybe once every five years. So that's the history. That's the context. By the time Clapton walked on stage at the Garden in 2025, he wasn't just a legendary guitarist. He was an artist who'd played there for decades, cycled through eras, bands, styles, tragedies, reinventions, and triumphs, and somehow arrived here, still standing, still touring, however little he does, but still touring and still committed to the blues as his center of gravity. And that's why this concert mattered to me because when you see Clapton now, he's not trying to live up to the Clapton of 1968 or of 74 or even of 1992. Today, you're seeing a musician who's already lived all those chapters deciding what's worth carrying forward and what's not. So the question for me, wasn't Can Eric Clapton still play? Yeah. He can still play with the same feel that he's always demonstrated. The real question is what does Eric Clapton choose to say in 2025, and how well is it landing? Before we get to that though, it's important to share the impetus for going to the show in the first place, and that's that my girlfriend Jeanne's father, Jerry Collins, had never been to a rock and roll concert before. Neither had his girlfriend, Eileen. Now Jerry was 82 years old and heavily involved in the lives of his two daughters and their families, and he had become the biggest fan of my podcast of anyone. He listened to every episode and had a conversation with me afterwards about each one. So when we were all together on Father's Day last June, it somehow came up that we should take him and Eileen to see a rock and roll show, and Clapton was the upcoming concert that offered the best mix of rock and blues songs they might enjoy while not being too heavy or loud, Unfortunately, Jerry ended up tearing a tendon in his ankle while biking over the summer, and we were worried he might not be able to attend with us after all, but he insisted he'd be fine. So Jeanne's sister Paula went about finding us tickets that were close enough to the stage that he'd be able to enjoy it and on an aisle so he'd be able to extend his leg and his heavily bandaged foot comfortably. Once those were procured on a Friday night in September, we went to the Garden to see Eric Clapton. As I said, the opening act was The Wallflowers and while their set was short, they sounded excellent. Jerry and Eileen got there in the middle of the opening set, and I think the only thing they really responded to was that the volume was louder than they expected. Even though really for a rock concert at the Garden, it wasn't very loud. The other thing they were impressed by was that the singer in The Wallflowers was Bob Dylan's son, which Eileen especially was interested in learning. Once The Wallflowers were done, I ran downstairs and caught up with my buddy Dave, who I've mentioned here on the show many times before. He's the guy that goes to more concerts than anyone else I know, and he was hanging out downstairs. I was able to catch up with him, which was meaningful because one of the first shows that we ever saw together back in high school was Clapton in the eighties. So it was a nice full circle moment. I went back up to our seats, and I got back just before Clapton came out. The stage setup was kind of different from what other shows looked like at the Garden instead of one big video screen behind the band or above the band, and two more on the sides. Clapton laid out a bunch of screens across the stage that featured different views at different times. It was pretty interesting and looked like this. He kicked off the show with White Room from his Cream era, which is how he started the 2018 show. I saw him at last. It's a great song for him to show off his singing and his playing, and he sounded really good, which I was pleased to hear and I wasn't alone. As you'll see in this clip. That was followed by two blues standards. Big Bill Broonzy's"Key to the Highway" and Willie Dixon's"Hoochie Coochie Man," and they both sounded great. Now,"Key to the Highway" has been in Clapton's set lists forever. He recorded it on the Derek and The Dominoes album in 1970, and I assume he played it live even earlier than that Hoochie Coochie Man" he was playing even earlier. I found a set list from his brief time with the Blues Breakers in 1965 where they were playing that. So these are both blue standards and as I said, the band sounded excellent. I was surprised to see some of the new members mixed in with his longtime band mates. Nathan East has been playing bass with him on stage ever since I saw Clapton. Back in 1987, Chris Stainton started playing piano and keyboards in his band as early as 1979, and was an entrenched member of the band by the time I saw Clapton for the first time at that 1983 benefit show Though the amazing Greg Phillinganes replaced him for the two tours that I saw in the mid eighties, Stainton was back behind the keys by 1988 and he's been there ever since. Second guitarist is Doyle Bramhall II, who's been with him since the 1994 Blues tour The new players are Sonny Emery on the drums. And Tim Carmen on the Hammond Organ and second keyboards. He also has two female backup singers in his band, as he always does, and this year they were Sharon White and Katie Kissoon, who sounded great and you'll hear them later on. The fourth song was another Cream classic"Sunshine of Your Love." I got some nice up close video of this one, and I want you to take notice of a couple of things that I found interesting. First, Nathan East shares the lead vocals with Eric on this one. Second watch Doyle Bramhall play guitar. He's a lefty, but he seems to have learned to play on a right-handed guitar because it looks like he's playing upside down. Watch him strumming up instead of down like Clapton is, makes no difference in the end. If Eric Clapton keeps you in his band for 30 plus years, you're a great player. It's just really unusual to see. Anyway, watch for that. Here's a little bit of"Sunshine of Your Love." After that, they moved right into their acoustic set, which as I said, seems to be a recreation of the Eric Clapton unplugged experience that he's been doing for years. He started with the blue standard"Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out," which was originally written about the global recession that followed World War I. Bessie Smith recorded the first well-known version of the song in the twenties, and then in 1960, Nina Simone recorded a version that actually charted on the hot 100 chart. Clapton recorded his first version of the song again on the Layla album with Derek and the Dominoes 10 years after Nina Simone, and it's one of the 15 songs he's played the most often live. So no surprise to find it opening the acoustic set. He followed that with two more covers. Robert Johnson's"Kind-hearted Woman Blues," and a Bob Neuwerth song I had never heard before called"The Call." After that he went into his acoustic version of"Layla." He does a very laid back acoustic interpretation of his own song that started off as a high energy electric rock and roll song. Also take note, you'll see that he's wearing boat shoes or seems to be, which is not at all rock and roll, but hey, he's 80 years old and he's Eric Clapton. So take a listen. That was followed by a beautiful version of Can't Find My Way Home from his Blind Faith project. You'll hear Nathan East singing the high lead part that Steve Winwood originally sang. Here's some of that. The last song of the acoustic set was his tribute to his son. Tears in Heaven. Always emotional to hear. It's really a beautiful song. Here's the beginning of that one. Soil. And strong and. I saw you. After that, the band shifted back into rock and roll mode with another Cream song,"Badge," and then a Clapton original slow blues from 1989,"Old Love." No videos of those as I was enjoying the performance and quite frankly, just forgot to record. But once he got to the next song,"Crossroad Blues," I was ready. This is also from his Cream period and was originally written by Robert Johnson, one of the most influential of the early blues musicians. Cream's live performance of the song from their 1968 Wheels of Fire album is, in my opinion, the greatest recorded live song in rock and roll history. It's so intense crackling with energy. I'm just astounded by it, and Clapton did double duty on that one, s inging and playing as well as I've ever heard anyone play. Again, that's just my opinion, but it's one of my all time favorite recordings. Please go check that out sometime. Now that he's 80 years old, he performs it more thoughtfully. Less like the story happened yesterday and there's a hell hound on his trail. More like he's recounting a story from a long time ago. It's still great, and in the clip you can hear the backup singers adding some really nice vocals. He followed that up with another Robert Johnson song, Little Queen of Spades, then he finished the set with another one of my favorites of his, Gotta Get Better In a Little While," which is an original composition that he first recorded for the never completed second Derek and The Dominoes album, which was never completed because he broke up that band, but it's since turned into an essential part of his live show. Here's some of that. He came back out for a one song encore, which as usual was his definitive cover of JJ Cale's"Cocaine." This might be his signature song from his solo career, or at least it was until"Tears in Heaven" came along 15 years later. It certainly caught my attention as an 8-year-old when I heard it on the radio. It was a song about cocaine, and it wasn't a suggested reference slipped into another song like Steely Dan's, Hey, 19. But the title of the song. Blew my mind as a kid. Nowadays, he and the backup singers throw in a little"dirty cocaine" response to the chorus, which he introduced to the song once he got sober in the late eighties apparently, to ensure that the song wasn't heard as an endorsement for the drug. So you'll hear that. Also, check out how Nathan East gets the audience into the song. I loved when he did this. He sings the vocal equivalent of the main riff and asked us to sing it back to him. I only caught him doing it the last time, but he did it four times before I hit record. So enjoy that. After that, Clapton waved and walked off stage with his band, 16 songs, satisfying his fans until hopefully we meet again next year. Overall, the show was top-notch. Clapton sounded better than he had in 2018, played at least as well, despite the seven year gap. He's one of the greats of this musical form, and I encourage everyone to get out there and see him if you can, while we still can. So that's it for my review. I'd love to hear your reactions. Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think. But before I wrap up, I want to take a moment to pay tribute to someone very special. Jerry Collins, who I mentioned at the top of the show. He was deeply involved in the lives of his two daughters and their families, and he extended that same interest, curiosity, and generosity to me. And that's a gift I'll always be grateful for. The fact that he was the biggest fan of this podcast is a testament to how open and interested he was in other people's passions. He listened to every episode of the show and without fail, he always had a question or a thought to share with me afterwards. Jerry lived with a genuine commitment to learning, growing and staying curious, but more than anything, he set a powerful example of generosity, of giving of his time, his attention, and his care freely to the people around him. He passed away unexpectedly a week before Thanksgiving, which made the holidays hard for all of us. But he remains very close, very present as we remember his curiosity and his enthusiasm for life, as well as his quirks, which made him even more charming. There's something quietly meaningful about the fact that this podcast's motto,"life is short, so get those concert tickets," ended up applying so directly to Jerry in relation to coming to see this show with us. He came to see his first rock and roll show at the age of 82, just two months before he passed. I'm heartbroken that I won't get to hear his feedback about this episode, but I can't help smiling when I think about him saying yes and showing up surgically repaired ankle and all. We miss him terribly, even as we hold his memory close to our hearts. So thank you, Jerry, for living your life as you did. We will carry your memory as a wonderful example of how to be of service to those that we love. Thank you for indulging me. That's it for this week's episode. If you like what you heard today, I'd appreciate it if you would subscribe or follow to make sure you get notified about each new episode. And please tell your friends. also a reminder that I release a playlist for every episode. So look for the Rock and Roll Show podcast playlist on Spotify and Apple Music every week, this week, featuring all 16 songs from the set list of the show that we saw at the Garden, plus a bunch of other live clapping tracks that I really like. So check that out. And as I've already said, I wanna know what you think. Please leave me a comment. I'll try to respond to all of them. The Rock and Roll Show Podcast is a World Highway Media production. I'm your host, Alex Gadd, and until next time, remember that life is short, so get those concert tickets.