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 If it took this long for Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck to get their sea legs, more's the pity that last night's Bell Centre concert was the last on their four-city mini-tour. For two and a half hours, the guitar-slinging legends played up a storm --- separately and together --- ending it all with a hug and then calling it a night.
Clapton begins a U.S. tour with Roger Daltrey Thursday and will have no time to reflect on what this short fretboard sprint with Beck really meant. The pre-Montreal reviews were not, to put it kindly, leaningtoward enshrining the collaboration. But judging from last night's performance before 11,500 fans, a second opinion needs to be entered into the record.
While one might quibble with the set list here and there, moments of six-stringed inspiration and steel-bending beauty were what really dominated the evening. If objections tend to run along the lines of "They could do this in their sleep," the only question can be "You expect Beck and Clapton to break a sweat while soloing?" They did not struggle. They played --- and beautifully.
Beck was up first with a 45-minute instrumental set featuring an orchestra and his small band. Opening with the loud fuzzy riff that launches Eternity's Breath, he soon found himself challenged by the Bell Centre's acoustics from hell, which certainly did no favours to the string players, either. Still, Beck's inventiveness and incomparable phrasing slashed through the murky sound, as a blizzard of notes filled the arena with squeals, shrieks, cries of alarm and quiet weeping from his trusty Fender Strat. Redoubtable bassist Tal Wilkenfeld was absent for this tour, replaced by Montreal native and former Prince bassist Rhonda Smith. Ending with his already-beloved version of A Day in the Life and, of all things, Nessun Dorma, Beck left most of the room standing and cheering.
Following Puccini with Charles Brown, Clapton launched his unplugged four-song set opener with Driftin' Blues. Following that exquisite performance with dodgier selections like the dreaded acoustic Layla and I've Got a Rock n' Roll Heart flirted with disaster, but Clapton's band provided a seductive swing that elevated the material. Special kudos goes to the always-indispensable Chris Stainton's organ work.
The electric section of Clapton's set might have evoked wistful memories of a superior show he headlined at the Bell Centre almost two years ago, but it was hard to argue with the purity of tone in his soloing on I Shot the Sheriff or with the way he shifted without warning to a higher key in a sublime version of Robert Johnson's Little Queen of Spades and started spraying notes everywhere.
 A final set with both guitarists was, at times, frustratingly short on interplay between the two. For much of it, Beck stepped up and Clapton sang, notably on a wonderful, slightly bluesy take on Moon River. But on a joyous Outside Women Blues and a set-closing I Want To Take You Higher, some sparks flew between the two.
Beckologists who knew Hi-Ho Silver Lining was on the set list as an encore might have been disappointed that it was skipped in the long run, but the sole encore, a celebratory Crossroads, showed just how much wisdom there was in the bringing together of two ex-Yardbirds.
(PHOTO: John Kenney/ The Gazette.)
Jeff Beck:
1. Eternity's Breath
2. Stratus
3. Led Boots
4. Corpus Christi Carol *
5. Rhonda Smith bass solo/ Hammer Head *
6. Mna na hEireann *
7. Brush With the Blues
8. Big Block
9. A Day In the Life *
10. Nessun Dorma *
(* with orchestra)
Eric Clapton:
11. Driftin' Blues
12. Layla (Unplugged version)
13. Running On Faith
14. I've Got a Rock n' Roll Heart
15. Tell the Truth
16. Key to the Highway
17. I Shot the Sheriff
18. Little Queen of Spades
19. Cocaine
Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton:
20. Shake Your Moneymaker
21. Moon River
22. You Need Love
23. Outside Women Blues
24. Little Brown Bird
25. Wee Wee Baby
26. (I Want To Take You) Higher
Encore:
27. Crossroads
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