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Eric Clapton's Crossroads Festival 2010

T

Tim C.

Feb 4, 2010
629
7
38
Chicago
#1
I was at the Crossroads Festival with my stepdad from about 5:00AM till Midnight - front row, about fifteen feet from the center of the stage. Stood for eighteen hours straight with about five minutes' worth of sitting or kneeling.

Bill "Murricane" Murray emcee'd, and was hilarious. But that's not what I'm posting about.

I got to see some of the best bass players in the business during the twelve hours that music was being played on the stage.

Saw Willie Weeks for the third time in the last year (twice with Clapton and Winwood, once with just Clapton this past February).

Got to see Pino Palladino with John Mayer. And though I think John Mayer is D-Bag with a capital D (looked like a bum who hadn't showered in a week...whatever, the teenaged ho's screamed for forty five minutes), Pino was fantstic. Very fun.

The most impressive bassist of the night was Rhonda Smith, who played with the Jeff Beck* Group. She had the single bass solo of the night, which was cool, and also sang some very impressive vocal parts too.

ZZ Top was in good form, and my stepdad has a video of them:

The PA system during the whole show had some serious problems. The whole system went out during the third song from Doyle Bramhall II's set, and all we could hear was the amps and monitors onstage, which was barely any volume at all. The entire PA was dead for about seven minutes. They brought it back to life for the rest of his set, but still. I got the feeling that the line arrays and subs they had were very old or very cheap.

Anyway, if anybody else was at this festival, let us know your experiences.

*Jeff Beck is an ass. Everybody else who Eric Clapton invited onstage to play with him during his set would shake his hand and hug him afterwords. Jeff Beck promptly marched offstage as soon as their song together was over, and threw his guitar at one of the stagehands, flipping it end over end and the stage crewman barely managed to catch it. Screw him.
 
#2
Ooh, I got one of Eric Clapton's picks from his mic stand courtesy of a stagehand who we got a Gatorade for (good deeds pay off!) and Robert Randolph's thumb pick from the last song, which of course was "Sweet Home Chicago".

Just sayin'. :bassist:
 
#3
Tim C. said:
*Jeff Beck is an ass. Everybody else who Eric Clapton invited onstage to play with him during his set would shake his hand and hug him afterwords. Jeff Beck promptly marched offstage as soon as their song together was over, and threw his guitar at one of the stagehands, flipping it end over end and the stage crewman barely managed to catch it. Screw him.
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Judgmental based upon thin evidence much? First, Jeff and Eric have a mutual respect society going with one another, as evidenced by several interviews and shows together. Second, if you are familiar with Jeff Beck's personality, you'd know that he's pretty shy and will often blunder when confronted with public displays of "protocol". There's a great clip of a performance by Jeff and his band (the band with Jennifer Batten from the "Who Else" era) on David Letterman - when the interview was over, he simply walked offstage uncomfortably - he wasn't "dissing" Dave - he just wasn't aware of the proper way to exit the show during commercial.
As for the guitar toss - Jeff has done this before - he does the guitar toss to LOOK to the audience that he's tossing it, but in fact he's been playing the same guitar (especially the neck) for many years - so his tech will always catch that "toss" (btw - this is something he RARELY DOES - so his aim could have been understandably lacking). Anyway... hardly "Ass"-worthy offenses in either case.
 
#7
MNAirHead said:
I heard BB was a disappointment - bummed.. I used to follow him around like a puppy dog
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BB wouldn't stop talking and the rest of the folks on stage looked a little, uh, like "wrap it up, please". I think the show was going on a little later than scheduled by that time. BB kept saying things like "I'm eighty four and can tell them to do whatever I want" and wouldn't start the song.

But one thing he said that I felt a little awkward listening to was he starting talking crap about Robert Cray! Right next to him, while technically sitting in on his band! He said something like "I'm mad at Robert, he hasn't called me in three years" and got into it. A little strange, especially considering we had been standing all day listening to twelve hours of music and would very much liked the finale to have gotten started.

So Low Bass said:
I'm Jealous!

I hope the PA problems won't stop another great DVD! I HIGHLY recommend the other two!!
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The cameras were repeatedly pointing at us and I'm pretty sure we'll be in the DVD at some point, which should be cool.

Any resentment I feel towards John Mayer may have been fueled by the fact that a bunch of teenaged girls suddenly showed up out of nowhere and had us surrounded, screaming nonstop until Mayer was off the stage, and then they all promptly dissapeared. What an earache.
 
#10
MNAirHead said:
So was it true he (BB) introduced Jimmy Vaughn "Stevie Ray's Brother"

Ouch
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Yes, he introduced Eric, Robert, and then said "Jimme Vaughan, you all know that he was Stevie Ray Vaughan's brother" or something very close to that.

Watching him two years ago at the Chicago Blues Festival was fantastic, and I was really hoping for a better show this time around.

Oh well. At least Buddy Guy delivered. In spades, actually. Very entertaining musician and ad libbed lyrics to "Miss You" when he broke a string, which he performed with Ronnie Wood. He broke a string on his guitar and got all dramatic about it, and starting singing about it to the beat of "Miss You." I love that guy (no pun intended!) Easily one of the best audience reactions.

Interesting point: When Clapton, and then BB King came out, event staff passed out all kinds of disposable cameras and told us to take "lots of pictures!" I have one of those and still need to get that film developed.
 
#12
Rhonda Smith = beast

I saw Jeff Beck at Bonnaroo a few weeks ago. was front and center. I knew she was good, but she is a flat out virtuoso. she's REALLY ****ing good. she opened her solo by quoting Okonkole Y Trompa by Jaco, and I think I was the only person out of the few thousand, or so, there. I screamed in approval when she played it, and lets say the band noticed me. lol. I am surprised you got that impression of Jeff, though. he was EXTREMELY gracious at Bonnaroo and was EXTREMELY humble. he thanked us (the crowd) a million times, and went on about his band and Imelda May for a while, too. but I have heard he has a finicky personality. so, I could have caught him on a good day.

not to hijack the thread, though. that sounds like you had an AWESOME time! weird to hear about BB King, though.
 
#13
I don't know. Maybe I just got a bad impression of Jeff, or maybe he was having a bad day. But he definitely did not just "toss" his guitar at the sound guy.

Regardless, it was a great time and yes, Rhonda Smith owned that bass solo like no other. Great tone, too! Had the fuzz going on a few parts. Actually, every bass player was very clearly audible in the PA, which really surprised me (despite the PA's other problems).
 
#15
jerry said:
Anybody here with family in their 80's I'm sure understands B.B. king rambling on a little.;)
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+100 My grandma is 82 and won't shut up! They all say the same thing too, "I'm 80+ and can do whatever I want!" That's the only reason I'm looking forward to getting old. You can do whatever you want. 85 year old guy in the park with no pants? He's just confused. Me in the park with no pants? Probably headed for the sex offender list.
 
#16
Jeff Beck is just a flaky dude, period. I'm convinced he's just too damn quirky to ever be a "fit" in a band context and that's why his biggest success has come as a "solo artist". I also notice he never sticks with the same side musicians very long... make of that what you will.

His personality is just like his playing... you never know what you're going to get. Sometimes it's sheer genius and other times you just scratch your head going, "what?" The one thing you do have to prop him on is, even though he switches side members a lot, he seems to pretty much give them free reign on what they play. And he always draws top-shelf talent.
 
#17
I think that most musicians who know Jeff Beck personally or who have played with him, know him as one of the very best guitarists alive, truely a musician's musician, who is humble, intelligent, shy, insightful, wise, and after all these years still putting on one of the greatest rock acts to be seen, with one of the best bands you can see. Jeff is not a soloist but does almost all of his playing within his own band, occassionally playing on projects for other musicians. And he is at his very best live in front of a crowd. I've seen him 13 times since 1968 and one thing I've admired most about him is how hard he works how it seems like he's always pushing himself to his limits to play his very best !! Most people who saw Jeff and his band at Crossroads 2007 felt he and his band was the best performance of the day. Though I was not at Crossroads this year, I saw JB and his Band's performance just before Crossroads 2010... and if its any indication, he may steal the show again this year:hiding:...Peace...Dacat :cool:
 
#19
Digging up this zombie thread! Because my OneDrive memories did the same thing to me. I was at this show, and it was definitely one of the more memorable gigs that I've ever been to. I traveled there from NJ with a buddy of mine to take in the whole spectacle.

Little did I know that this would be the first time I would see the Tedeschi Trucks Band in person! The Allman Brothers Band had originally been scheduled to appear, but due to health issues the ABB had to cancel. But guitarist Derek Trucks had recently started up the Tedeschi Trucks Band with his wife, Susan Tedeschi, along with Oteil Burbridge and a number of musicians from their own bands. It's 15 years on, and I think TTB are probably one of the best live bands in the U.S. today.

I'm still thrilled that I got to see ZZ Top perform that day. They played early in the day because they had their own show that they were playing that night in Milwaukee - talk about a hard working band! They were utterly amazing. Billy and Dusty worked that stage like masters of their craft, and they brought the show!

I'll echo the remarks about the PA - because it died during Gary Clark Jr's portion of Doyle Bramhall II's set with Sheryl Crow. Glad the festival got recorded so I could actually see his live version of "Bright lights, big city" with good sound.

Jeff Beck was amazing to behold in person. Talk about an iconoclastic musician who could never be mistaken for anyone else. I am so happy that I got to see him perform live that day.

I have to say, at this point in time I am not the biggest Eric Clapton fan. But as for his musicianship? It was excellent that night. Steve Winwood shared the stage with him, and I suppose it's the closest thing to a Blind Faith reunion that anyone would ever get a chance to experience. Add in Steve Gadd and Willie Weeks in the rhythm section? And that was fantastic.

I do regret taking a break to check out things around the stadium during Earl Klugh's set. Because John Mayer followed him with the trio - Pino and Steve Jordan. Not getting to see them play together live was a disappointment.
 
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