Eric Clapton @ Madison Square Garden, New York, NY 9/19/25
Bill: Eric Clapton/Wallflowers
Venue: Madison Square Garden, 4 Penn Plaza, New York, NY
Date: 9/19/25
Ticket: $150 (Section 109, Row 6 face at box office)
8:30 Eric Clapton
Active: 1962 (Ripley, Surrey, UK)
Affiliated: John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Yardbirds, Cream, Blind Faith, Derek and the Dominoes
Latest Release: Meanwhile (Surfdog, 2024)
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Missed: Wallflowers
I thought I had seen Eric Clapton for the last time a few years ago. The buzz in the air was he was on his way out and between Covid shot paranoia and being rolled around in the wheelchair, the media played that up. However, 2025 brings us a healthy looking active 80-year-old Clapton on stage, so maybe he has had a bit of a bounce back.
While he wasn't doing jumping jacks and played a large chunk in the center of the set sitting acoustic, there wasn't anything that seemed out of wack for a veteran of his stature. Clapton kicked off "White Room" right at 8:30 while we were rolling in to our surprisingly non obstructed "obstructed view" side seats right on the side of the stage 6 rows up. For someone Clapton with minimal stuff on stage that was totally great, although if you have a stage show with a ton of sets and screens blocking the drummer sightline, I could see why the next section to the left is and was at the $295 level, which we passed on. Unfortunately, I missed my shot at casually seeing Jakob Dylan's Wallflowers, my friend was starving, and we went to the new Roberta's fancy rooftop pizza joint (like the Brooklyn one) on the roof to grab a bit after meeting at 6:30 to get walkup tickets. I would say that is a great 7th Ave option if you get there with time to spare, I usually hit Tick Tock Diner, if I'm out with someone that wants to grab a bite before or after the show (which I did with a different hungry friend last month for Ghost), but if you leave the Garden after hitting the box office you wind up on 7th not 8th. So, figure two hours if you are gonna hit Roberta's, which will make you miss the opener unless you had time to kill before 5:30. Tick Tock is the faster option if you already have tickets and are emerging from 8th Ave. Mental note! Important for this type of "visitor" or "friend meet up" type of large shows.
This was only the third time I've seen Clapton. The first time was in 1985, his second tour to hit the Centrum in Worcester (the first was 1983 a year after that arena opened). The next time was as I said, was fairly recently in 2022 at the Garden. Right after I saw him, it seemed like his "popularity stock" in terms of selling out went up with the Chronicles box in the early CD era where a retrospective like that was a big event. His soft rock hits of the 90's kept him at that level pretty much ever since and the recent exponential ticket rise has impacted the ever shinking pool of active arena level octogenarians to be more and more expensive, so I was happy we got away with only $150 to sit at the side of the stage. It's Clapton, he's going to do some Cream hits (in addition to "White Room" we got "Sunshine Of Your Love" early by the 3rd song and "Badge" kicked off the final electric portion of the night. You got his sit-down version of "Layla" along with "Tears In Heaven" after debuting "The Call" from his new album Sometime and kicking that off with "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" by Jimmy Cox and "Kind Hearted Woman Blues" by Robert Johnson. The wrap up tonight was "Cocaine." I thought there might be more than that one song encore and there was some teasing with the lights staying dark but then the harsh bright lights of eviction hit the Garden around 10:40 pm.
FOR FURTHER REVIEW:
There's One In Every Crowd (1975)
Derek and the Dominoes-Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (1970)
Various Artists-The Concert For Banga Desh (1971)
Jackie Lomax-Is This What You Want (1969)
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