Gary Clark Jr - Is He The Blues' Savior? (Page 5 of 5)

Hi all, i caught Gary Clark Jr. at the Garage last night: Firstly, I was very impressed, first time I've seen him and the crowd seemed to love it. Secondly here is the Setlist:

• When My Train Pulls In
  Don't Owe You A Thang
  Please Come Home
  Travis County
  Ain't Messin 'Round
  Third Stone From The Sun/If You Love Me Like You Say/Third Stone From The Sun
  3 O'Clock Blues
  Things Are Changin'
  Catfish Blues
  You Saved Me
  If Trouble Was Money
  Blak & Blu
  Bright Lights

  In The Evening (When The Sun Goes Down) [solo]
  Numb

Thirdly my overall impression. I very much enjoyed the show, he played for 2hrs 10 mins (a steal for £12.50), the only disappointment however was that the vocals were at times too quiet, which is a shame as he has a fantastic vocal range.

Now to the seemingly hot button topic, his guitar playing. He is certainly no virtuoso, but that isn't what you should expect from him, he is, to me, very much a 'play it as it feels' player (hope that makes sense), as opposed to making a carbon copy of the studio recording or just showing off for the sake of it. However I'm not saying or implying that he is a weak guitar player, far from it the highlights guitar solo wise were for me (in no discernible order);

When My Train Pulls In
Please Come Home
Third Stone From The Sun/If You Love Me Like You Say/Third Stone From The Sun
3 O'Clock Blues
Bright Lights

'When My Train Pulls In' features some great guitar work but was especially powerful live and a superb opening song. The first three songs took us to 27 minutes of the show, showing how long he went for it on the extended 'Please Come Home' as 'When My Train Pulls In'  is a fairly lengthy song and he didn't play a particularly extended version of 'Don't Owe You A Thang'. 'Please Come Home' was the highlight for me, the guitar solo was extended and very tender yet powerful. He played a few blues standards and his rendition of '3 O'Clock Blues' aptly demonstrated he can play straight blues as good as the rest. His set displayed quite a range of guitar playing, and while it may not be comparable to someone such as Eric Johnson, they are two different types of player, you can't expect the same thing. He may not be the best guitarist technically, as stated already in the forum his music is a lot more about groove and beat, with the exception of a couple of the slower tracks, the crowd was quite comfortably bopping along to his show.

Would love to go see him at the Blues Kitchen tomorrow night, and would recommend to all. However it is just too late for me, don't wish to run myself down as i get up for work at 5am, and want to save my holidays for other gig related days off, and will settle for seeing him again as support for Eric Clapton.

Wow that is certainly the most I've had to say on this forum as of yet. Hope this satisfies at least someone.