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Wednesday night I saw Eric Clapton for the first time. I’ve been a fan for as long as I’ve been listening to music, and even more so the last few years as I’ve gotten more and more hooked on the blues. Clapton started with “Key to the Highway” playing a mint-green Stratocaster that he kept using for most of the night. “…Highway” is one of my absolute favorite Clapton songs so it was a great start to the show. I thought it was a real nice touch with the two backup singers, Sharon White, and Michelle John. They really added depth to the sound. I just love the feel the music gets with backup singers, it makes me think of The Black Crowes’ By Your Side tour in 1999. “Hoochie Coochie Man” sounded great, and I really loved the 13 minute version of “Old Love,” especially the intro solo. Being a recreational guitarist I kept finding myself geeking out stuff like what position Eric’s pickup switch was in for various songs (I was surprised to see him using the middle position, you don’t see that too often).

My favorite songs of the night apart from what I’ve already mentioned were “Badge,” and the fantastic final two songs of the night “Cocaine,” and “Crossroads.” “Cocaine” is such a great live song, and it’s fun to jam on. But I really wish he would’ve played “Sunshine of Your Love” as well, and that “Layla” would have been the original electric version instead of acoustic.

Tim Carmon’s organ solo at the end of “Little Queen of Spades” was really cool, ending on the highest note possible which he sustained while stepping away from the organ. Chris Stainton had quite a few nice piano solos as well. But I must say that I really missed a second guitar player, like Doyle Bramhall II that used to play with Clapton. In my opinion, when you have both an organ player and a piano player, you need to balance that with two guitar players that can trade licks with each other. I think it makes for a better rock sound.

It is clear that Eric Clapton can do no wrong, as became evident by the enormous (and well-deserved) cheers after the guitar solos in “Cocaine,” and “Crossroads.” I think this is the first concert I’ve been to where the t-shirts have been completely sold out after the show, a true testament to Clapton’s immense popularity. Now I just wish that the Clapton/Steve Winwood show would make it to Stockholm, it would be the perfect complement to this great night.

Opening the concert was Norwegian rock trio Bigbang, a band that’s been around since 1992, and have released eight studio albums so far. These guys, led by singer and guitarist Øystein Greni put on a great show. “To the Mountains” and “Where the World Comes to an End” really rocked, and the band got the crowd going with “Girl in Oslo” and “Wild Bird.”

Setlist:

Start: 20:30

01. Key To The Highway
02. Going Down Slow
03. Hoochie Coochie Man
04. Old Love
05. Tearing Us Apart
06. Driftin’ Blues
07. Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out
08. Same Old Blues
09. Layla
10. Badge
11. Wonderful Tonight
12. Before You Accuse Me
13. Little Queen of Spades
14. Cocaine

Encore:
15. Crossroads

End: 22:17

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Last night I was lucky enough to see Foo Fighters in an intimate club setting at Nalen in Stockholm. We were first in line, waiting outside in the cold for three and a half hours. Needless to say we got front row center. While waiting in line two guys pulled up to deliver a Mellotron to the venue. As it turned out later one of the quys happend to be Rami Jaffee, Foo Fighters’ touring keyboardist and member of The Wallflowers! If I had only realized that sooner I would’ve asked to take a picture with him. I used to listen to The Wallflowers all the time in the late nineties.

After maybe half an hour Taylor Hawkins came out to do his own sound check! I’ve never seen that happen before. When everyone started chanting for Taylor he made everyone chant for his drum tech instead (Danny?). After another ten minutes or so Chris Shiflett came out for his sound check. They obviously weren’t trusting their crew to take care of it! Jack Daniel’s was sponsoring the event and the whole place had the sweet smell of JD. Too bad there was no waitress service for the front row.

When the concert finally started, Dave Grohl said hello to the crowd and went straight in to Bridge Burning, proceeding to play every song from upcoming album Wasting Light in chronological order. What a treat it was! Of the new songs I really like White Limo and Bridge Burning, but my two absolute favorites are Arlandria and I Should Have Known. For the latter, Pat Smear played an awesome double guitar/bass combo. Dave played his blue Gibson Trini Lopez guitar for almost the entire concert. I was amazed that he didn’t have to re-tune once while playing all of Wasting Light.

Once they finished finished the last song of Wasting Light, Walk, Dave announced that the Foo’s have over a hundred songs and they would “only” be playing 36 of them tonight (it ended up being 33)! Just before they came on stage, the roadies actually switched out all of the setlists that were taped to the stage floor. From what I have seen afterwards, what happened was that they actually added on eight more songs to the set. It was hard to believe that they would put so much in to a little club gig, but you could tell they were all having fun on stage. Dave talked about how these small shows are the really great ones.

Then it was time for a two hour “regular” concert which they started off with All My Life, and Times Like These. Could it possibly get better than that? The whole concert was fantastic, and I can not think of a single song that I didn’t get to hear. It’s fun that they’re actually playing Big Me live, which I think they weren’t doing for quite a while. All songs were played plugged in, even Cold Day in the Sun, and Skin and Bones. Stacked Actors is always my live favorite – I love the guitar duel between Dave and Chris. And Best of You sounded amazing! I also have to mention that the pressure from the crowd was insane! There’s only a handful of times when I’ve gotten that crushed against the fence before. I thought I was going to have marks from the steel mesh in the fence on my body!

When the band came out for the encore the crowd was still chanting Best of You. Taylor started playing along and Dave started singing Walking on Sunshine! Dave talked about how bands who have played together for ten years are not allowed to play for less than two hours, and that by that reasoning, the Rolling Stones should have to play eight hour sets. Then Taylor and Chris started playing Start Me Up, while Dave pretended to walk a cross the stage with a walker – hilarious! For the first song of the encore Dave decided to surprise the band by just starting to play a song that wasn’t on the setlist, Wattershed. The Pretender was great fun and the crowd went nuts. Some guy in the audience called out for a bass solo (???), which Dave thought was really funny, remarking how it was a great night, but it could be a great night with a bass solo. During set closer This is a Call, Dave tried jokingly to get Nate to burst in to a soaring bass solo, but Mr. Mendel wisely abstained from such atrocities.

And so ended an amazing almost three hour long concert with thirty-three songs, by far the longest set list I’ve experienced (the longest concert was Bruce Springsteen on June 7th 2009 at Stockholm Stadion). Thank you Foo Fighters for choosing Sweden for such a special event. Can’t wait to see you again this summer in Stockholm!

Unfortunately the security was very tight and I wasn’t able to bring in my camera, so all I have right now are some crappy pictures from my iPhone 3G. Hopefully I’ll get some better ones plus some videos soon.

My huge thanks to my friend Erika for letting me tag along as her +1 for the show. I owe you a drink!

Setlist:

Start: 20:40

01. Bridge Burning
02. Rope
03. Dear Rosemary
04. White Limo
Arlandria
These Days
Back and Forth
A Matter Of Time
Miss The Misery
I Should Have Known
Walk
All My Life
Times Like These
Generator
Up In Arms
My Hero
Long Road To Ruin
Cold Day In The Sun
Big Me
Learn To Fly
Enough Space
Breakout
Stacked Actors
Skin and Bones
Best Of You
Monkey Wrench
Hey, Johnny Park!
Everlong

Encore:
Wattershed
For All The Cows
The Pretender
Aurora
This Is A Call

End: 23:30

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I saw Buckcherry, Papa Roach, and Disturbed as part of the Taste of Chaos tour package. My main reason for going was Buckcherry. It was fun to finally get to see them, unfortunately I didn’t think they were that great in this particular setting, it felt like an arena is too big for them, I have a feeling they would be much better in a club. I was also a bit disappointed that they only got to play for 35 minutes and chose to play only one song from 15, my favorite album of theirs. The best songs of Buckcherry’s set were Lit Up and Crazy Bitch.

Biggest surprise of the night for me was Papa Roach. I’m not a fan, and have only heard the singles that get played on rock-radio. However, I must say that they were really good live! It turns out that Jacoby Shaddix is quite the entertainer. I really liked the opening song Kick in the Teeth, as well as Scars and Getting Away With Murder. I also have to add that there were quite a few mosh pits going on during Papa Roach’s 55 minute set – insane!

Disturbed were the headliners of the whole event, and probably the main ticket draw, along with Papa Roach. They played a 75 minute set starting with Remnants and Asylum, off of their latest album of that same name. The band put on a great show with tons of energy. Singer David Draiman is a great front man, but his voice did seem a bit strained. Perhaps a remnant from his vocal problems earlier in the fall. The audience was, as is so typically Swedish, slightly unresponsive, and at one point Draiman actually addressed the crowd saying they wouldn’t continue playing until everyone who had seats were standing up. My favorite songs were the Genesis cover Land of Confusion and the insanely powerful finale of Indestructible and Down With the Sickness. Before the band left the stage, Draiman urged everyone that enjoyed the concert to go home and tell two of their friends about it, promising if everyone does that, Disturbed will come back. Then he lead the audience in their “We all are disturbed” chant.

Setlists:

Buckcherry
01. Tired of You
02. Rescue Me
03. All Night Long
04. Oh My Lord
05. Lit Up
06. It’s a Party
07. Dead
08. Crazy Bitch

Papa Roach
01. Intro
02. Kick in the Teeth
03. Lifeline
04. One Track Mind
05. Scars
06. The Enemy
07. Getting Away With Murder
08. …To Be Loved
09. Forever
10. Burn
11. Hollywood Whore
12. Between Angels and Insects
13. Last Resort

Disturbed
01. Remnants
02. Asylum
03. The Game
04. Prayer
05. Liberate
06. Land of Confusion
07. The Animal
08. Inside the Fire
09. Stricken
10. Another Way to Die
11. Stupify
12. Indestructible
13. Down with the Sickness

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I saw ZZ Top for the first time this past Sunday, and I just keep asking myself: Why haven’t I gone to see them before??? In short, they were awesome!

The venue is standing room only, but since it appeared to be a sold out show, they had opened up the balcony, so we secured a great spot up there. Now, I knew exactly what to expect song-wise, cause it appears that ZZ Top has been playing the EXACT same set every night for the past year or so. Really too bad for fans that want to follow the band for a few shows in hopes of catching some rarities, but for someone like me who hasn’t seen them before it didn’t matter one bit.

The Texans started out with Got Me Under Pressure, followed by the fantastic combo Waitin’ for the Bus and Jesus Just Left Chicago. The latter one is my favorite ZZ Top song, and it sounded great. I was struck by how tight they sounded, but I guess that’s what happens after playing with the same guys for 40 years. Unfortunately, bassist Dusty Hill was having problems with his monitors during the first couple of songs, so he would constantly go to the side of the stage to get them fixed, and wasn’t totally focused.

Before the blues covers in the set, Billy had a Swedish woman come up on stage and do a little predetermined banter with him, to which Billy would answer with some Swedish phrases. He also had the word öl, meaning beer in Swedish, written on the back of his Gretsch Billy-Bo guitar. He ended this little bit by saying that in order for him to play the blues, he needed his blues hat, upon which two lightly-dressed girls entered the stage to deliver his hat. Billy kissed them both on the cheek before launching in to Future Blues.

I really like My Head’s in Mississippi and it was a shame that we only got one verse of it before they segued in to I Need You Tonight. As those of you who play guitar know, Billy Gibbons uses a lot of pinched harmonics in his playing, something that can be quite difficult to achieve unless you set the gain really high on your amp. Well, in I Need You Tonight it became quite apparent just how much gain Mr. Gibbons use, when he gave away his guitar pick to a guy in the audience and continued playing the entire outro using only his left hand – no strumming at all!

After this Billy said “Where’s my friend?”, and a picture of Jimi Hendrix appeared on the screen. They then proceeded to play an awesome version of Hey Joe, which Billy ended by playing various Hendrix riffs!

One of the absolute highlights was Brown Sugar from their (not-so) cleverly titled debut album ZZ Top’s First Album. During the mellow first half of the song, it was just Billy Gibbons and his guitar lit by strings of light bulbs above the stage. This was a very nice effect and it made me wish I could see ZZ Top in a small bar – what an experience that must be!

I found it very interesting that both Dusty Hill and Billy used the same instruments for almost the entire concert. Billy didn’t change guitars until Just Got Paid, when he had his guitar tech bring him his Gibson Goldtop. The guitar nerd in me assumes that the only reason he changed guitar at all was because he played the song in an open tuning, which suits the slide playing much better. By the way, Just Got Paid sounded awesome! And to think I only became aware of that song earlier this year when Joe Bonamassa played it as his set closer!

Then it was time for the crowd pleasing main set closers of Gimme All Your Lovin’, Sharp Dressed Man, and Legs. I must say that I’m not the biggest fan of ZZ Top’s 80’s catalogue, however, these songs are fun when enjoyed in a live setting. And you just have to love Dusty’s and Billy’s synchronized moves in Legs, not to mention the fuzzy guitar and bass, just like in the video.

The encore started with La Grange, the ultimate ZZ Top song. It seems like they’ve been trying to write La Grange II ever since they recorded it in 1973. Anyway, the song sounded great, just as expected, and Billy and Dusty had changed in to red sparkly jackets for the encore. The concert ended with Tush, and Dusty on vocals. Billy immediately went for a cigarette that his guitar tech had to light for him. The concert was just a little over an hour and a half, and I could easily see them doing a full two hour set. Why not end the show with playing Tres Hombres back to back? But the show was great, and I would recommend anyone to go see ZZ Top. Hopefully they’ll come around again soon, I’ve heard there’s a new album in the works for 2011…

Thanks to my wife Irma for the awesome videos and pictures!

Setlist:

Start: 20.00

01. Got Me Under Pressure
02. Waitin’ for the Bus
03. Jesus Just Left Chicago
04. Pincushion
05. I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide
06. Future Blues (Willie Brown cover)
07. Rock Me Baby (B.B. King cover)
08. Cheap Sunglasses
09. My Head’s in Mississippi / I Need You Tonight
10. Hey Joe (Billy Roberts cover)
11. Brown Sugar
12. Party On The Patio
13. Just Got Paid
14. Gimme All Your Lovin’
15. Sharp Dressed Man
16. Legs

Encore:
17. La Grange / Sloppy Drunk / Bar-B-Q
18. Tush

End: 21.36