EC in 서울

I bought my ticket for Eric Clapton a couple of months ago, it happened to be the same day as the North Korean shelling of yongpyung island. (I wrote about a possible correlation). Well last night was the night I'd been waiting over a year for, my first concert in Asia.

Excited and eager I ventured to the Olympic Sports Complex, I arrived into a ghost town. Nobody was there, with panic starting to set in I scoured the grounds searching for the gymnastics gymnasium where Clapton was to play. It took around 40 minutes before I found that he was playing at a different Olympic site. Once I arrived at the right park, it took another twenty or so minutes to get to the venue because the cabby dropped me off at the opposite end of the park.

The show was scheduled to start at 7pm, and started promptly on time. Clapton was on the stage before we set foot in the building. While he gingerly played the first song (Key to the Highway) we rushed to find our seats.

The show was great, Clapton showed little signs of aging as he flew through several solos. Clapton himself however showed a lot of signs of his age, he looked old and tired as he doled out the aforementioned solos. (I took some video with my new camera and you can check out an excerpt of Cocaine). My favourite song, and Corwin's, was his extended version of 'Badge', in my mind it was his best solo, and is one my overall favourite songs of his (well Cream's). (check out the show's setlist)

The Olympic Gymnastics Gymnasium was a great venue, and our cheap seats gave us an excellent vantage point (photos above). The early start, and lack of an opening band, resulted an early exit. The concert was over around nine leaving plenty of time for a late dinner.

Considering the exercise I received before the show, Corwin and I went for pizza after it. I researched a place called UNO weeks ago while I was searching for Chicago Deep Dish Pizza (my personal favourite). This chain apparently created the dish, and has several locations in Seoul. A connection between my culinary choice, and concert didn't fall into place after we heard Clapton on the restaurant's airwaves. The evening seemed to come full circle and a great night was capped off, until they started playing NE YO.