Eric Clapton -
"One More Car One More Rider"
Live On Tour 2001
Performance
Production
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Eric Clapton -
"One More Car One More Rider"
Performance
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Eric Clapton fans certainly can't complain about the volume of music and video material he has released during the last decade. They may certainly have a legitimate gripe with the quality of some of it, especially his last few CD releases. Clapton has released no fewer than six of his own concert performances on DVD throughout the last decade, and has also appeared on several other artists DVDs, most notably on the excellent Concert For George (Harrison) tribute concert. One More Car One More Rider was recorded during his tour in support of his Reptile album and is his latest concert DVD release, as of this writing. This concert was performed at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA, in August 2001. First of all, the production quality of this DVD is second to none. It is mixed in both DTS and Dolby 5.1 surround, as well as stereo. The sound quality and mix are essentially perfect. Each instrument is clear, distinct, and at the proper level. The video is clear and vivid, with only slight graininess at times. The camera work was exceptional. The director expertly captured the live concert atmosphere by focusing mostly on medium and long shots from above the floor crowd, which captured the entire band and stage show. Plenty of great close-up shots were also interspersed to show Clapton fingering a solo, or Billy Preston's fingers walking down his Hammond B3 organ. The camera changes were never hurried or chaotic, which is a common problem with many other concert videos. You actually get some time to breath in each shot. Clapton was in decent form during this concert and he had a first-rate group of musicians surrounding him. Watching Billy Preston play the Hammond B3 and sing was especially a treat. Nathan East (bass) and Andy Fairweather Low (guitar) have pretty much become permanent Clapton band members. Rounding out the band were Steve Gadd (drums) and David Sancious (keyboards & guitar). The first six songs of the show had Clapton sitting on a chair and strumming an acoustic guitar. After about the third song, like this, I was beginning to wonder if this was some kind of acoustic-only performance. My question was later answered when he plugged in his Strat for the seventh song and kept it on for the remainder of the concert. The song selection for this concert could have been better. The newer songs like "Reptile", "My Fathers Eyes", "River Of Tears", and "Goin' Down Slow" were rather boring and made you want to hit the skip-track button to get to the better songs. "Tears In Heaven" really needs to be retired for a while. Although a beautiful song, it will never come close to the impact it had when he performed it on the Unplugged show, less than a year removed from the death of his son. The highlight of the acoustic section was a bluesy, acoustic version of "Bell Bottom Blues". Clapton played some smooth acoustic leads, and Preston added some impressive organ work. The show didn't really take off until the Cream classic "Badge" was performed. Next, were a couple of old blues standards "Hoochie Coochie Man", which is getting a little tiring to see over and over again, and "Have You Ever Loved A Woman", which was one of the show's highlights. Clapton surprised the audience with the often neglected "Cocaine" next, but gave a pretty lackluster performance. They closed the show with, what else, "Layla". The intro to "Layla" was awesome. Clapton was standing with his back turned to the audience while throwing out some random, tasty, blues licks to build up the audience's anticipation. As he turned to the audience and stopped playing momentarily, you could see him reach down and completely crank up the volume knob on his guitar just before launching into the famous opening riff to "Layla". I could listen to that riff every damn day. God bless classic rock! The encore consisted of an exciting version of Billy Preston's "Will It Go Round In Circles", followed by "Sunshine Of Your Love". I was disappointed with Clapton's performance on "Sunshine". He just seemed to be bored with it, and only going through the motions. This is somewhat understandable after playing it for 30+ years, but he should just jam more on some of those old Cream and Bluesbreakers songs. Plug that damn Strat into a Marshall, crank up the distortion, set the volume to ELEVEN, and just ROCK! (as Jack Black would say). Sometimes he just plays these songs way too mildly, like he is doing a Vegas act with Elton John. That is my main problem with this concert video. The performances were rather sterile and lackluster. I went back and listened to some of the versions of these songs from Clapton's Live In The 70's three-CD set. Back then he played with much more passion and had a certain rawness to his tone. Listening to the old live version on "Have You Even Loved A Woman", compared with the more polished version on this DVD, he almost sounded like Angus Young hammering out those guitar licks. Thankfully, even a polished Clapton performance is still better than most stuff out there. Reviewed by Paul M. Roy - September 2004 |
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Running Time: 125 Minutes |
DVD Release Date - November 2002 |