Jim Cuddy At Barrymore's

It's my birthday, I was kicked out of my church last week, and Dave and Amy and I went to Barrymore's tonight to see Jim Cuddy, touring his solo album.  It was nice, but not as cool as when I saw them at the much-tinier Black Sheep Inn in Wakefield Quebec last summer, and spoke with Jim about one of his songs and how his song-writing process working, while some drunk people canoing by in the dark on the lake across the road shouted "Hi Jim!" to him.  Once again, Jim let Basil (the bass player in both this band and Blue Rodeo) sing an old country song.  Basil plays bass like you wouldn't believe (he is all over the fretboard, yet it doesn't detract distractingly from the songs) but his singing voice is pretty flat.  Still, it's cool Jim lets him sing a song each show.

Eric Clapton

Amy and I went to see Eric Clapton. I actually really liked Bonnie Rait, who opened for Clapton, more than Clapton himself.  Clapton had big glasses and no beard, and I felt a bit cheated.  "Where is the Clapton from the album covers, with the beard?!" I wondered.  He soloed endlessly and without the soul that I hoped he'd have, unliked Rait, who had all the soul anyone could ask.  Particularly tedious was Clapton's catalogue of Adult Contemporary Music sounding stuff, and his extended soloing back and forth with his keyboard player who, unbelievably, had a keyboard Clapton sound-alike setting on, and pretended to be Clapton, while Clapton played call and answer bits with him, which was more schooled and less fun.