I've shared my enthusiasm with brother Eric, and when Darling Wife saw that he was coming to the Colonial Theater in Phoenixville, we decided that would be a good Christmas gift for Eric and me. We went on the theater's website in December and found that we could select the seats we wanted. Two seats in the 8th row a bit right of center sounded perfect.
The afternoon of the concert, I finally had time to do some research on what we could expect to see, and discovered that he has a new disc, Up Close. I downloaded it, and after a quick couple of listens I particularly liked the opening mood piece, which then launches into a guitar jam called "Fatdaddy."
Eric Johnson and his band (a bass player and a drummer) came on around 9:25, and launched into..."Fatdaddy." Great opening song, and the first thing I noticed is that he wasn't playing his signature Stratocaster, which is a sunburst body with a maple fretboard. Instead he was playing a black Strat with a maple fretboard. His amps were behind a black curtain, but it looked like there was a Marshall stack and a couple of Fender amps.
He went from one song to the next with very little stage banter (really nothing more than "thank you so much".) His playing was everything I expected from what I've heard and seen on YouTube - his tone is amazing, and pretty much unique. If I have my iPod on shuffle in the car, both my girls will call out "Eric Johnson" when a song of his comes on - even if they don't know the song, they know his sound. He can unleash a dizzying barrage of notes, flying up and down the fretboard - but he can also stay in the background laying down a groove during the vocals, or when the bass or drums are featured.
He didn't play songs from his new disc to the exclusion of everything else. He did some covers - The Beatles' "Dear Prudence" (which honestly didn't knock me out), a John Coltrane extended jazz jam (where he played a Gibson SG), and Hendrix's "The Wind Cries Mary". I was hoping that his Hendrix cover would be "Are You Experienced?", as I love his version from the '88 live disc. Songs that he did from that disc were "Zap" and "Cliffs of Dover".
I was impressed by the variety of styles of music he played. I was expecting the rock/blues jams, but the Coltrane jam surprised me, as did a country-style jam. The song is "On The Way" from his latest disc, and it's a fun kick-up-your-heels country picking song, and he called Andy McKee out to play on it. He even did a handful of solo acoustic guitar songs, including Paul Simon's "April Come She Will" (which is a gorgeous song that he played beautifully.)
One quibble - I'm sure it's too late to change his style of live playing at this point, but I wished he would have looked up from the guitar more. I'm not suggesting he become a showman - it's obviously not his style, and that's fine. But it seemed like he spent too much of the show hunched over the guitar looking at the fretboard while he played.
But that's a minor quibble - it was an amazing show. The man's technical ability is off the charts, and watching him lead his trio through so many musical styles was a treat. Eric Johnson alone would have been a memorable night - throw in Andy McKee as the opening act, and you have a night of guitar playing to remember.
Looking at YouTube, I see a number of clips from his show the previous night at BB King's in NYC. Here are a few:
Finally, here's the official tour promotion video, which has a lot of nice details.
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