Gary Clark Jr. (Page 2 of 3)

He's really good but my heart belongs to Joe and no one comes close in my humble opinion

Gary is gonna be on Letterman tonight (Monday 2/17/14). 

Think it is a new one.  This will be his 4th Letterman appearance I believe.  Happy for Gary ... enjoy seeing him on TV ... and Dave giving the Blues exposure ... but when Joe's next album drops in 8 or so months ... he better get an invite to the old Ed Sullivan stage!!!  We'll have to start rattling the chains early. (But I have a feeling Joe will be on.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHyfb4YXclY

Gary on Letterman last nite

an oldie but goodie, Muddy, Bloomfield, Junior Wells......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp7pkP-UjJI

saw GCJr at Shepherds Bush Empire last night, - interesting show for which I will write a few words and post some links to films that I took.

We were up in the gods; 3rd tier, - I don’t mind it up there as you can get a good perspective on all of the band and the crowd, - and after last years bad experience for my wife seeing Joe (oversold stalls) probably won’t make that mistake again when she is with me!

- First thing to say is "why did Gary ever take advice from John Mayer"??? - Gary had the crowd in his hand for the blues, riff heavy songs and then lost them completely when he shifted to a “pop” song. It really was a stop/start concert for me, - his entrance was fairly unremarkable and the band just sort of fell into a song rather shakily. It was about the 3rd song in before people in any number started to bond with what was going on, - and then he would slip back into a non blues number and the crowd was gone. There were moments of absolute brilliance and I would say he is one of the best “real blues” guitarists that I have seen, - he has a lovely feel to his playing that comes across well even in a fairly large venue like this. He looks to be VERY unassuming to the point of being shy, - perhaps I missed the connection with the audience being so high up but I have seen The Temperance Movement and Rival Sons from up there and they had no trouble making you feel very much part of the show, but they have very extravert front-men..

Hats and Lighting: - Wear a hat with a brim and no hope of the crowd above you seeing your face. Lighting, - was awful.

Audience: I admit to being slightly disappointed to see that the crowd was made up of the usual middle aged, grey haired, white people, - I had hoped that Gary would make that cross over possible, bringing in a younger audience and not all from the same ethnic background, - but sadly as far as London went it was still us middle aged old f4rts!

In saying that my review is a bit negative, both myself and wife did enjoy the experience and would love to see him again, -  I think his management need to take a look at who is buying tickets and focus his “trade” on where the demand is, - John Mayer is a "pretty-boy” so can appeal to the young pop girlies, - not sure GCJr is in that territory to be honest.

Clips:

Dont Owe You... http://youtu.be/EVW9mRFIVws

Bright Lights: http://youtu.be/_ZDxuPe1CcM

Really nice acoustic encore: http://youtu.be/_cQoqC_F0ds

Numb (I think) http://youtu.be/6ZqyMDX1Yn0

Train : http://youtu.be/0_sLdSMDeiY

Opening song (just the start of it): http://youtu.be/z1zM71_FxbQ

I saw GCJr on Saturday at the Grünspan in Hamburg. It was my second experience with him and I have to say I enjoyed it much more than the gig in Berlin at the Quasimodo in February 2013.
Lightning was awful too in Hamburg. I was standing frontrow and couldn't see much of Gary and nearly nothing from the other Bandmembers because of a fogmachine that was working constantly . . .
In Hamburg I saw a lot of young faces in the audience. It was very mixed from young to older ones like me.
And it was really nice to meet some people that I have met at several JB-gigs over the last five years!!!!!

good to hear that it was more lively in the stalls! - Reading my little write up there I do sound quite negative, - sorry it was not want to be that bad, - he is a superb artist that is REALLY worth seeing. And perhaps the fact that I did want to see a bit more of HIM is why I was oft a bit frustrated.

Also the age of audience thing, - I guess it will be the young folks down the front standing and not up in the higher tiers, but I was also trying to make a (more important) point about ethnic background. Warning elephant in the room issue ahead, - GC Jr is a black man playing blues,  - and  this genre of music which is at the root of ALL popular music is IMO followed mainly by white middle class (older) people, - and I do not see it as exclusively “ours”, - change is needed because...... - kids today are blindly following a genre of music that revolves heavily around gangs, murder, rape, drugs, violence, - nothing wrong with Hip-Hob, nothing wrong with rap, - BUT there is plenty wrong with the obsession with violence from misogynistic "artists” and I was hoping that GC Jr could be an artist that might cross over into their territory, and spark off a bit of pride in what is an enormous contribution to the world in terms of music that the blues is. Lesson over for today.

' can’t agree with you there Barbie, Outkast is a brilliant opportunity for GC Jr to play to a new audience - and actually Outkast have written some very good songs over the years, - pretty positive artists, - use sampling but they do bring in real musicians and it is very well produced.
Taking down the barriers is not so easy but a peep over the wall won’t hurt!

http://youtu.be/PWgvGjAhvIw