A friend of mine had offered to help get me into the sold out Eric Clapton show at the Gibson Amphitheatre (capacity - 6,000) I invited a friend of mine who moved to L.A. recently from Lexington (and taught me guitar...so I thought it would be cool to invite him)
All I knew was that I was to park backstage. I had no proof of tickets so was a bit nervous. Parked backstage no problem. We went to check in at hospitality and were given VIP wristbands as well as tickets. The backstage area was set up outdoors and had a variety of snacks and open bar. We went in for the opening band at 7:30 which was Los Lobos and were seated seventh row. Instead of having people stand backstage on the sides, the first 10 rows were reserved. I was amazed -- ticket prices for this show ranged from $100-350!! There's no way I probably would have gone to this show on my intern budget so this was a really neat experience. I had never really heard Los Lobos' music, but they were quite good!! In between bands we went out to reload on drinks. I ran into a security guy I knew from the Foo shows.
This was my first time seeing Clapton perform and the show was great. He was the only guitarist on stage, but had a great variety of supporting musicians/performers. He played some well-known songs (Layla, Wonderful Tonight, Cocaine, Crossroads) in addition to some more rare and bluesy numbers. During the middle of the set he played several songs unplugged (including Layla which I would have preferred the electric version...but was still very excited to hear it live at all!)
After the show we lingered out back where many people were hanging out. The members of Los Lobos and the other performers were all hanging out. We decided to stay in hopes that Clapton might come out. We spoke to the keyboard player for quite some time who has performed with Clapton for thirteen years. He was explaining that tonight the sound was good and they were really happy with the performance, but the previous night the sound was totally off, Clapton was almost shouting to sing, and they were all fairly frustrated after it. Definitely sounds like we came to the right night! He mentioned that he lives locally and plays fairly frequently at a jazz club down the street from where I live and invited us to come out sometime. We chilled a bit longer, but the crowd was starting to disperse so we joined them.
Coming soon...
-Motorhead @ Club Nokia
-Shepard Fairey gallery opening
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