Eric Clapton was awesome. This is a concert that I really never thought I would get a chance to see, and it was amazing. My favorite Eric Clapton is Blues Clapton, and this concert was 100% blues.

Sadly, when I purchased the tickets they had a different seating plan showing on Ticketmaster than the actual one they used. In the plan they show it looked like we were on the 6th row to the left of the stage. In actual fact we were in the 36th row. I know, sucks. Still, it was amazing to be at the show and I would have paid what I did again any day.

Robert Cray was Clapton’s opening act. He came on at about 7:30 and played for 30 minutes. He has a cool style and an amazing voice. I thought he was really good. By 8:30 Clapton was playing. He stuck to the blues this time and every song turned into an extended solo for every member of the band. He played songs including Keys to the Highway, Got to get Better in a Little While, Tell the Truth, Motherless Children, and Little Queen of Spades. At roughly 10pm the band left the stage but soon came back for an encore. For their encore they whipped out Crossroads and Little Wing. Oh yeah, and there was an acoustic set in the middle of the show. I loved hearing Running on Faith live.

On top of the amazing musicians, the sound setup was pristine. I have no complaints. It sounded just like it would if you had the DVD playing on your home stereo system. Whoever did the sound setup should give themselves a pat on the back. I was impressed.

I think the 14,999 other people at the Saddledome will agree with me that it was one of the best concerts they have ever seen. Anyone who likes Clapton would have been in heaven. I know I said I would try to get photos, but it was much too dark and nothing seemed to turn out on my digital camera.

Wel’p. Tomorrow night is the big night, Eric Clapton at the ‘Dome. I’m pretty stoked about it. I have never seen Clapton live and I never expected to see him. I am really happy about the seats I got too (6th row). They always say no cameras, but every show I have been to I have yet to be checked and every time I see other people with their cameras taking pictures. It kills me a little inside every time. You watch, I’ll try it this time and get busted.

I’m just going to go for it and see what happens. I’ll post pictures tomorrow if I am able to get some.

I have had a lot of hits on the Alexi Laiho video lessons that I posted a while back and I came across a few more that I thought might be helpful for those aspiring shredders. I like these videos because Alexi shows off some of his best riffs. I really am amazed by his ability to write really unique sounding songs.

In this video there are 5 examples played at both normal speed and slow speed for learning. I have also included a Guitar Pro 5 tab file below that includes all of the riffs demonstrated. Here are the riffs that Alexi teaches us in this video:

• Ex-1 is the riff that starts at 1:03 on Are You Dead Yet’s first track Living Dead Beat.
• Ex-2 shows the intro riff that starts at 0:48 from that same song.
• Ex-3 shows the intro and chorus from Downfall.
• Ex-4 shows the intro to Are You Dead Yet?
• Ex-5 shows the riff that starts at 0:42 in the song In Your Face.

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