Concert review: At 78, Eric Clapton has slowed down, but still thrills on the six-string

Eric Clapton was a member of a half dozen bands, but it turns out what he really wanted to do was join the Band. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer was so enamored with the Band’s 1968 debut “Music from Big Pink,” its revolutionary take on Americana music was one of the reasons he left his wildly successful power trio Cream. But for whatever reason, he never got around to asking guitarist Robbie Robertson if there was a place for him in the group.

That deep respect — coupled with Robertson’s death in August — explains why Clapton opened his concert Thursday night at St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center with not one, but two songs from the Band: “The Shape I’m In” and “It Makes No Difference.”

The show marked the 78-year-old Clapton’s first in the metro since 2009, when he shared the stage with Steve Winwood. His body has understandably slowed down, but his fingers remain as strong and fluid as ever judging by his sharp, trademark guitar work. There’s still an audience interested in what Clapton has to offer, too, with about 15,000 reverent folks in the crowd ready to cheer him on.

Thursday’s concert was the fourth in just five North American shows for Clapton this year and, presumably, he booked the dates as a warm-up for his Crossroads Guitar Festival on Sept. 23 and 24 in Los Angeles. Clapton founded the festival in 1999, and this year will be the seventh time he has assembled his favorite six-string players under one roof for an event to raise money for his Crossroads Centre drug treatment center. (It’s worth noting Robertson was booked to play his third Crossroads festival.)

Clapton didn’t spend much money on the stage or screens, but did pack his band with heavyweights, including guitarist Andy Fairweather Low; the rhythm section of Nathan East and Sonny Emory; backing vocalists Katie Kissoon and Sharon White; and Chris Stainton and Paul Carrack on keys.

Beyond the pair of Band songs, the set list offered Clapton’s typical blend of old blues covers (Robert Johnson’s “Cross Road Blues,” Johnny Moore’s “Driftin’ Blues”) and J.J. Cale numbers (“Call Me the Breeze,” “Cocaine”).

What was surprising, however, was Clapton’s willingness to mix things up with two of his signature tunes. He sped up his cover of Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff” — his first No. 1 as a solo act — and let Kissoon and White handle much of the singing.

“Layla,” from his Derek and the Dominos days, usually burns the house down near the end of his concerts. Thursday, Clapton slowed it down to a crawl during his mid-show, five-song semi-acoustic set, slipping it in just before his Grammy-winning “Tears in Heaven,” which arrived complete with a bit of “A Whiter Shade of Pale” thrown in by Carrack.

Clapton has courted controversy for decades due to his views on race and immigration, not to mention his womanizing. More recently, he released a pair of singles — the Van Morrison collaboration “Stand and Deliver” and “This Has Gotta Stop” — that railed against pandemic lockdowns and vaccinations. Neither made Thursday’s set list and Clapton barely said a word to the crowd, and instead allowed his guitar to do all the talking.

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