MEDIA BONUS! "Tales of Brave Ulysses" at the Wed. Night Show! (.wmv format) (Thanks ECned from the Cream 2005 Message Board. You rule!!!)

In recent years there have been comebacks by a lot of bands that should have stayed lost. They're too old, they don't have all their original members, or worse yet they just don't have it anymore. Happily, this was not the case when the legendary proto-Jam band Cream took the stage at Madison Square Garden for three nights that were their first performance there in 35 years.

It was a chance to come full-circle for me in a lot of ways. Cream has been my "dream" concert since I started playing the bass. It was great that they finally got around to it. It would have been a lot better twenty years ago but I understand where they're coming from. With both Jack and Ginger having had health problems the past few years, no doubt the notion that, "We're not getting any younger so if we want to do this, we'd better do it now and not put it off" drove this reunion as much as anything. Plus, in some ways it seemed as though Eric wanted to make sure the other two got a nice payday - to his credit.

Overall, it was as good a show and as good as you could expect given its limitations. I had seen the DVD of their Royal Albert Hall shows so I wasn't expecting them to live up to their former glory. The show was they did the best they could do NOW, although of course it would have been MUCH better had they done it twenty years ago! Then again, one would guess that the specter of mortality and the idea that they're not getting any younger probably drove the reunion in large part.

Anybody who wants to know whatever happened to "Woodstock Nation," they were all there in force at Madison Square Garden. This was very much a concert for aging hippies and there were very few young faces, and even fewer that weren't there with their parents. Nevertheless, it was a stellar show from a band that's always been near and dear to my heart. I mean, Eric Clapton's amazing guitar solo at the end of "White Room" was what inspired me to play in the first place, and Jack Bruce has always been one of my bass heroes. Before Jack Bruce, the bass player could never be the lead singer in a Rock band.

The show was great but different. It was updated, which was both a good and bad thing. The good news was that the stage set was really great and churned plenty of groovy psychedelic colors behind the band as they played. Instead of vintage gear, they used updated equipment. Which meant there were no super-distorted Marshall amps blaring away. Jack sported very crisp and clean SWR gear and Eric played Fender gear all night.... no Marshall stacks, no SG's. This meant that the sound was a lot cleaner than the old days, when blown speakers were actually part of their sound!

One big reality was that the guys are in their Sixties now, and not their twenties. Jack and Ginger especially look long in the tooth. The upside to this was that they are more mature musicians and better players, but that maturity has replaced the youthful, frantic energy with which they once performed.. Asall three of the guys were quick to point out in the interview segments of the DVD, they are "Cream the way we play now, not the way we played then." The fire and youthful joy with which they played in the old days are replaced by tastefullness and precision. Eric especially sees no need to shoehorn as many notes as possible into each measure.

Overall they did competent job playing the Cream repetioire, and I thought they did a lot better than they did on the Royal Albert Hall DVD. For one thing, they had already done it so "Can we still do this" was no longer hanging over their head. Having already proven they were still a vital band, they seemed much more relaxed. Also, it goes without saying that Royal Albert Hall is a much more subdued venue than Madison Square Garden, and the band seemed to feed of the crowd's energy. Unlike the DVD, they performed several extended jams, taking a song to Mars and back.

They didn't do "Tales of Brave Ulysses" on the Royal Albert Hall Video (so I enclose it here). Even so, my only disappointments were that the they never played "SWLABR." or "I Feel Free."

Last Updated 11/11/05