Steve Winwood and Carlos Santana. The Carlos Santana Universal Tone Tour 2010. Montreal, Thursday July 15th, 7:30 PM at the Bell Centre. Seating: reds, section 113, row B, seats 4,5, and 6. About 8200 fans.

A great night out with Sil and Zad. We kicked off the evening with Pizza at restaurant Pino (1471 Crescent) with chocolate & vanilla tartufo for dessert. Great seats very close, to the right of the stage. Unfortunately, Sil’s seat (number 6) was not “standard” for some reason and did not leave much leg room – not that there’s much room to begin with, more cramped than peasant class on a plane!

Winwood opened with some new material and then went on to some classics. His band played for about an hour. I particularly enjoyed Can’t Find My Way Home (Blind Faith), The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys (Traffic), Dear Mr. Fantasy (Traffic), and Gimme Some Lovin’ (Spencer Davis Group). Steve is a great keyboardist but also did a fine job on the guitar.
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Tickets went on sale at 10:00 AM today and I picked mine up online as soon as they opened – 3 tickets in the reds. Santana featuring Steve Winwood (Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, Blind Faith) on July 15th at the Bell Centre in Montreal. I wasn’t able to see Winwood and Clapton so this will make up for it. This will be the fourth or fifth time I’ve seen Santana, but first time for Winwood. Going to be a great concert, can’t wait.

Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck. Together & Apart – four city mini-tour. Montreal, Monday February 22nd, 7:30 PM at the Bell Centre. Seating: reds, section 115, row H, seats 14 and 15. Two and a half hours, 11,500 fans.

A boys night out with Zad to see two legendary guitar virtuosos. I had seen Clapton back in May 2008 but this was the first time I saw the other Yardbird, Jeff Beck. Zad was pretty excited about the fact that his sax teacher, Roger Walls, had got the call earlier that week to play trumpet as part of Beck’s band.

While we were disappointed that the incredible Aussie bassist Tal Wilkenfeld wouldn’t be showing up, we were thrilled to see and hear bassist Rhonda Smith (formerly with the artist formerly known as prince). Smith, a Montrealer, is amazingly talented, what a great solo we were treated to. Narada Michael Walden on drums was also fantastic.

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Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck. Does it get any better? Woooot!!

Beck and his Strat. Click for full size.

If you want to hang out
You gotta take her out
Cocaine.
If you want to get down
Down on the ground
Cocaine.
She don't lie
She don't lie
She don't lie
Cocaine.

But he swears it was in self-defense. Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton last night at Montreal’s Bell Centre – amazing concert. Will blog it in more detail real soon. My Nikons were at home, so I shot this with Zad’s Canon PowerShot SD450. I have to say that the sound quality overall was excellent, considering this was the Bell where the acoustics can really blow big time.

Click for full size.

Almost died laughing when I saw this quote on Clapton’s official site:

On a freezing cold evening in Montreal, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck wrapped their six-concert, four-city tour to a sold out crowd at the Bell Centre on 22 February 2010. The set list was identical to that performed the evening previous in Toronto.

I was out walking down in that “freezing cold” and trust me it was pretty mild by Canadian standards.