Eric Clapton & ARC Angels

Liverpool Echo Arena - my first visit - Huge barn of a place - 11,000 seater, our seats were on the arena floor which of course is flat (no rake) .Seated in Block F towards the rear of the arena floor so about 100 mtrs from the stage which was worrying. No supports or pillars to obscure the view. The photographers had to work from an area just in front of the sound man about 90 mtrs from the stage - BIG lenses!!!! The stage didn't appear all that high so a bit of neck craning would be called for but there were screens either side of the stage so it looked as though we were going to get the set in video, which kind of put our fears to rest about being so far from the stage.

ARC Angels - Wandered onto stage and were introduced as being from Austin Texas. The sound, it has to be said, was a bit boomy and echoey, which again worried us after what we had heard from some people on here about Joe's RAH gig (which was fine for us in the 10th row there). They put on a reasonable set I suppose but they (and we) had to put up with half the hall walking in and finding their seats through their set, which kind of spoils it I guess. There was no video coverage, so we couldn't see Jack, being so far from the stage, which was also disappointing.

Eric Clapton - Immediate leap in sound quality, lighting and Eureka, we could see him on the big screens. A couple of numbers to bed everyone in and the band moved up a gear - they were just awesome. Clapton is not only a legend, but a class act. Delicate playing, not overdone in the sound mix. It has to rate as the best sound quality I have ever heard at ANY live gig - almost as good as a DVD - truely amazing for such a barn of a place! Excellent solos by his pianist stage right and organist stage left. Steve Gadd I believe on drums was fabulous and super tight. Bassist was refined and not too heavy in the mix. Supporting guitarist Andy Fairweather Lowe again demonstrated superb skills. Two backing singers filled in at various points though they did seem to be mixed a little low I thought. His set was varied with some new songs at the start. A sort of "unplugged" session at about half distance was very well done - the sound was particularly good for this section. As the more well known numbers came out so the audience began to participate more, although standing was definitely frowned upon during the main body of the concert (a couple were forcibly evicted by the police two rows behind us for repeated standing after being told to sit down!) "Cocain" got it's usual applause and they walked off stage, then back on for the encore "Crossroads" and that was it. 2 hours to the minute. No band introduction apart from the solos by the organist and the pianist, no dialogue whatsoever with the audience. A clinical show, very well done, but sadly - lacking personality. something which we got in spades from a certain gentleman at the RAH!