Classless jerks in OKC

[flybriz]

I was there at the OKC concert - I thought it was great (It's my third Clapton concert) but he did play many songs that I hadn't heard before or didn't remember.  I did hear the booing, and the Tulsa World story is making way too much out of it.  After Clapton and band finished their set, they shuffled offstage and the crowd started it's traditional clapping, stomping, screaming for an encore.  After a few minutes, the band came back out and played two more (long) songs before lining up at the front of the stage arm-in-arm and taking a bow, then leaving.  Well, someone must have been asleep at the house lights switch because the arena stayed dark for what seemed like several minutes.  I could feel some collective restlessness and confusion in the crowd since the lights hadn't come up, and I think many people thought that they were going to come BACK out so they started the stomping, clapping, yelling bit again.  Finally someone threw the switch and the house lights came up, prompting a collective "boo" and/or "awww" from parts of the crowd.

Root Cause: Delay of the house lights after the encore performance resulted in crowd confusion and empty hopes of a second encore.  Clapton was NOT booed off the stage nor did he nor his band "abruptly" leave.

[flybriz]

Addendum to the Doyle Bramhall II comments in the article.  I've seen Doyle play live and also on a couple DVD and TV concert performances... He's an amazing guitarist, and additionally intriguing because he plays a right-handed guitar upside-down and left handed.  Yes, I know Hendrix did this too, but Doyle doesn't re-string the guitar - For him, the top strings are the small ones and the bottom strings are the big ones.  So all the scales and chords he plays have to be inverted.  As a guitarist, that makes my head hurt to even think of such a concept.  IMHO he WAS "off" the other night - Seemed like he was somewhere else... His vocals seemed timid and his solos were abrupt.  I did notice that he kept tapping the side of his head throughout the night, a stage signal to the engineers to turn up his monitor.  It's quite possible that he was off his game simply because he couldn't hear himself or his guitar.  Seems unlikely to those of us in the crowd because it was quite loud, but I know first-hand that it's a whole other realm onstage trying to fight to hear your own voice and instrument amidst all the other musicians.

[jne]

Flybriz wrote:
"I was there at the OKC concert - I thought it was great (It's my third Clapton concert) but he did play many songs that I hadn't heard before or didn't remember. I did hear the booing, and the Tulsa World story is making way too much out of it. After Clapton and band finished their set, they shuffled offstage and the crowd started it's traditional clapping, stomping, screaming for an encore. After a few minutes, the band came back out and played two more (long) songs before lining up at the front of the stage arm-in-arm and taking a bow, then leaving. Well, someone must have been asleep at the house lights switch because the arena stayed dark for what seemed like several minutes. I could feel some collective restlessness and confusion in the crowd since the lights hadn't come up, and I think many people thought that they were going to come BACK out so they started the stomping, clapping, yelling bit again. Finally someone threw the switch and the house lights came up, prompting a collective "boo" and/or "awww" from parts of the crowd.
Root Cause: Delay of the house lights after the encore performance resulted in crowd confusion and empty hopes of a second encore. Clapton was NOT booed off the stage nor did he nor his band "abruptly" leave."


I wasn't able to make the show, but I've already had 6 or 7 people, who were there, tell me exactly what this poster says.  The reporter from the World probably didn't understand the expectation when the house lights didn't come on and did a disservice to the Clapton and Cray and others by thinking he witness something juicy to report on.   Looks like the shame lies with the Tulsan in this instance...

[Conan71]

quote:Originally posted by flybriz

Addendum to the Doyle Bramhall II comments in the article.  I've seen Doyle play live and also on a couple DVD and TV concert performances... He's an amazing guitarist, and additionally intriguing because he plays a right-handed guitar upside-down and left handed.  Yes, I know Hendrix did this too, but Doyle doesn't re-string the guitar - For him, the top strings are the small ones and the bottom strings are the big ones.  So all the scales and chords he plays have to be inverted.  As a guitarist, that makes my head hurt to even think of such a concept.  IMHO he WAS "off" the other night - Seemed like he was somewhere else... His vocals seemed timid and his solos were abrupt.  I did notice that he kept tapping the side of his head throughout the night, a stage signal to the engineers to turn up his monitor.  It's quite possible that he was off his game simply because he couldn't hear himself or his guitar.  Seems unlikely to those of us in the crowd because it was quite loud, but I know first-hand that it's a whole other realm onstage trying to fight to hear your own voice and instrument amidst all the other musicians.

Dick Dale also plays left-handed with an inverted string arrangement.  I guess if you never had anyone cram the standard chording down your throat it wouldn't seem like a big deal.  Since I'm not self-taught, and had it crammed down my throat, it would blow my mind trying to do it with inverted stringing.

[rwarn17588]

Dick Dale rocks.

I did not know about the inverted string arrangement, though.

At a show in St. Louis where I saw him, he did explain that he has to use freakin' huge strings, or else he'd snap 'em like last year's rubber bands.

And, yes, the sound he produced was as gigantic as those strings.

I like Clapton a lot. But there are guitarists I like better, like Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, Roy Nichols (with Merle Haggard a long time), Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave), and Keith Richards' born-to-rock rhythm riffs.

[flybriz]

Interesting info about Dick Dale.  I guess you're right - If you're learning from scratch and have no frame of reference, the inverted string approach wouldn't be quite as daunting.  Giganto strings my my head (and fingers) hurt too. Didn't SRV play with a hybrid set of 12's or something like that?

[Conan71]

My buddy runs Unit D over on the west side.  Two years ago when Dick played there, his guitar tech told me that was the first left-handed Strat Leo Fender ever built, same one he still plays at every gig.  I think it's a '62 model.  FWIW- the show at Unit D kicked serious a**.

My buddy tried to do the show at Tulsa Little Theater last year and it didn't work out.  I'll let you know if I hear anything about a show late this spring from Dick.  The Cain's doesn't seem too interested in booking him anymore, so if he's coming I'd imagine he'd call Mike first to book a date.


SRV's set up:

"...To help get his h-u-g-e tone Stevie tuned down a semitone (to Eb Ab Db Gb Bb Eb) and experimented with different string gauges, generally using heavy gauge GHS strings - 0.013, 0.015, 0.019 (unwound), 0.028, 0.038, 0.058. If his fingers weren't holding up he'd compromise with a 0.012 to 0.058 set although at one point Stevie even strung his guitar with 0.018 to 0.074..."

For those not familiar with guitars- those are monster strings for a 6 string.  I'd heard once that Stevie used to put Krazy Glue on his finger tips when he was playing with the 18's.

[RecycleMichael]

I saw Stevie Ray Vaughn play a show at the old Boston Avenue Market at 18th and Boston back in February 1983.

This show was right after they had their big break playing the Montreaux Jazz Festival and won a Grammy.

I also saw him at a sold out show at the Brady Theater in April 1986. By then, he had been all over the world and had played Saturday Night Live a few months before.

[SoonerRiceGrad]

Can you feel the bias? []

[sgrizzle]

quote:Originally posted by SoonerRiceGrad

Can you feel the bias? []

The bias is that Clapton is consistently tied with "The Tulsa Sound." The Tulsa reviewers rate dhim positively while OKC's paper gave him a bad review. It was also IN OKC that he got booed.

We're not biasing the story, reality is just biased.

[Conan71]

quote:Originally posted by recyclemichael

I saw Stevie Ray Vaughn play a show at the old Boston Avenue Market at 18th and Boston back in February 1983.

This show was right after they had their big break playing the Montreaux Jazz Festival and won a Grammy.

I also saw him at a sold out show at the Brady Theater in April 1986. By then, he had been all over the world and had played Saturday Night Live a few months before.

Four Tulsa concerts I'm sorry I missed:

Police- Cain's Ballroom
Pretenders- Cain's (before James Honeyman Scott and Pete Farndon died)
U2- Brady Theater (figured I'd see them the next time they came through town- who knew?)
SRV- Brady Theater, didn't have a clue yet who he was in 1983 other than being "a guitarist for David Bowie"

[okcpulse]

quote:By: sgrizzle

The Tulsa reviewers rate dhim positively while OKC's paper gave him a bad review

Ummm.... Might want to re-read the Oklahoman review.  

quote:Review: Clapton delivers rousing performance




Eric Clapton reached deep into his 40-plus years of recording history and delivered a rousing, endlessly surprising performance Monday night at the Ford Center, thanks in no small part to a young and immensely talented man named after Clapton's early 1970s band, Derek and the Dominos.

Following a strong and well-received set by Southern blues journeyman Robert Cray, Clapton took the stage with his superb band. He and fellow guitarists Derek Trucks and Doyle Bramhall II, keyboardists Chris Stainton and Tim Carmon, drummer Steve Jordan, bassist Willie Weeks and backup singers Michelle John and Sharon White immediately launched into the first of several songs from Derek and the Dominos, "Tell the Truth." Together, Clapton, Trucks and Bramhall delved into the Dominos' deep Southern blues-rock style, continuing with three more favorites from that group: "Got to Get Better in a Little While," their arrangement of Jimi Hendrix' "Little Wing," and "Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?"

Clapton began a sit-down set with a shout-out to Andrew Oldaker, the son of Clapton's '70s drummer and Oklahoma native Jamie Oldaker, then launched into a straight acoustic version of Charles Brown's "Driftin' Blues." Then Bramhall and Trucks joined in for "Outside Woman Blues" from Cream's 1967 classic, "Disraeli Gears." Adding musicians with each song, the rhythm section and keyboardists returned for a version of another Dominos classic, "Nobody Loves You When You're Down and Out."

Throughout the show, Clapton barely played a note that was recorded in the past 30 years — the most recent songs were 1989's "Running on Faith" and his 2004 version of Robert Johnson's "Little Queen of Spades." He seemed energized and in his element while playing the blues-heavy classics of old, particularly on "Motherless Children" and "Further on Up the Road." The former was given a blistering slide-guitar workout by Trucks, and on the latter, Clapton and Bramhall traded laidback, tasteful fretwork.

Fans in the near-capacity audience looking for radio hits received a faithful reading of "Wonderful Tonight" before Clapton and the band kicked into an extraordinary version of "Layla." Trucks, who grew up hearing "Layla (And Other Assorted Love Songs)," did not imitate the slide guitar work of Duane Allman, the late guitarist whose position he fills in the Allman Brothers Band. Instead, he put his own sneak-attack spin on the coda, helping Clapton pump new life into the anthem.

For an encore, Clapton ripped into the J.J. Cale classic "Cocaine," then invited Cray onstage for an astounding run through the Cream arrangement of Johnson's "Crossroads." It was four of the best guitarists of their respective generations onstage together, playing a classic written by the father of the blues, and few who witnessed Clapton as a resurgent guitar god will forget the experience.

After the concert, a fan was overheard saying that "Derek Trucks stole the show." That might not be completely true, but Clapton has his best partner in crime in years.

— George Lang

[AMP]

Many artists hung out in Tulsa for breaks on the road.  Tulsa's keyboard player Dick Sims and Drummer Jamie Oldaker were some of the first to tour with Clapton.  I remember first meeting Jamie when we were attending Nimitz Jr High, we all had long hair, but Jamie had the longest.    

Recall playing a concert at Nimitz, Geoff Bond Jamie and myself were in the percussion section.  We always wanted to break out in a massive drum solo just to freak out the conductor.  

Think I remember Jamie showing me his very first Zildjian cymbal or a drum he got at his house one afternoon.  He always had a great meter.  Remember one of the bands he was in playing at Utica Square some battle of the bands type deal.

Seems the Crash Landing Club up on North Lewis was a favorite haunt for Bon Jovi for a few years.  Leon and his gang hung out at Lindas in her Southern Hills home along with Ronnie Dunn and others.  We have an old cassette tape of Ronnie singing alone at Lindas one night. Emily Smith would invite a few close friends over on occasion.

My favorite gig was the Young Republicans at the Camelot Inn, may of been due to the free drinks we got back stage on occasion, we were only 14-15 at the time. LOL  Second favorite was teen night at the Elks Club on Harvard in that round dome building.  

Tulsa has some strong personal ties to many artists of that era and it continues today.  

Jamie has a web site: http://jamieoldaker.com

[AMP]

Ah I believe the band was the Rogues V with Randy Ess, I.J. Ganem & Jamie Oldaker.  But it could of been another one prior to them.  Seems there was Front Page News with Sam and Lou Routh singing.  We played with them on occasion for a few Social Club Beer Keg Parties.  We always got some sort of a flat bed trailer, straw and Electricity from somewhere.  Those clubs had a way of finding some of the best venues for their parties.  Seems the Sand Springs Horse Club was one of the best then. And one of the clubs held one out by Sparkies Cemetary near Jenks, it was a spook out during Halloween.    

Geoff Bond, Dick Gordon, Kevin Zerbee, Joe Bass and I formed "A Grain Assault" in the mid 1960's.  Dick was and still is a very talented guitarist. Bond has moved on to full 3-D fully natural sound engineering.  Quite difficult to explain, but it is identical to being there in your head when you listen to his recordings. Something one needs to experience themselves.

He also performs a solo act at select events.  Bond is the only person I have ever witnessed that could play every insturment in a rock band using his hands, AND he later did it by using only the strings of his Guitar and a synclavier type synthesizer, quite an amazing feat.  

I recall "A Grain Assault" playing to a large audiance on top of the roof area of my families store a few times.  We did it before the Bingo Game on Tuesday nights.  And I remember this giant concert held there too.  


Found this at Tulsa TV Memories:  

Great Page! Just wanted to let you know that my band and I worked the "Dance Party" on KOTV for about a year back in the mid-60's. The host then was Mike Flynn. We used to play a lot of "sock-hops" for KAKC at the Cimarron Ballroom, Cains Ballroom and the Continental Arena. It was at those hops I met (Leon) Russell Bridges, Johnny (J.J.) Cale, David Gates (Bread), Gary Busey and Gailard Sartain.

Back in the 60's, KAKC also hosted an appreciation night at Oertle's Shopping Center parking lot using our band. The police reported that 110,000 people attended. It is still the record for a concert held in Tulsa, as far as I know. Those were great times and I'm proud to be a part of Tulsa's entertainment history.

Rodney Lay (Rodney and the Blazers)

http://tulsatvmemories.com/dance.html

[SoonerRiceGrad]

So if anyone in Tulsa boos Garth Brooks, Vince Gill, Toby Keith, Hinder, or the Flaming Lips, you're gonna hear about it...