Eric Clapton Gives You Wings: Madison Square Garden, New York City, 10/8/94

I came to New York three years ago. Back in Moscow, my parents had spent tearjerking hours in the US Embassy describing various atrocities committed against us and trying to convince the US government to let is into the Land of Plenty. I hadn't really had much to say back them, but my reason had been simple. I wanted to rock and roll.

A lot of things happened in three years, not all of them good. I discovered Eric Clapton, lost a grandmother, went to college, and was welcomed into the angst-ridden slacker generation with open arms. I've also shaved my head and gotten a tattoo. For a while, my motto was, "If you kill yourself now, you will never see Clapton live." I was now a full-fledged American youth.

Finally, on October 8th, after months of fasting, begging and doing odd but legal jobs around Brooklyn College to pay for my $60 ticket, I was standing in the Madison Square Garden next to my mom and my best friend, waiting anxiously for the opener, Jimmie Vaughan, to get off the stage. (Sorry Jimmie, but you have to understand - Clapton is... you know how that goes.) 9pm hit, the lights went out, and there it was: the light, the God, the Slowhand.

"Tonight is blues only," Clapton announced. All right, let's give Layla a rest for a while. Welcome to Blues History 101, please take out your notebooks.

I got kind of lost in the opening acoustic set. Sitting down, a guitar so old I could see the dents and scratches all the way from my nosebleeds seat, a paper cup on a music stand - no guitar solos for half an hour. I began having withdrawal symptoms.

By the time Clapton got out an electric guitar, however, I was halfway down to the Crossroads with a huge smile on my face. This was how the real blues was supposed to be played. Twenty-minute solos had been invented by the London white boys from Kingston College.

I didn't know much about the history of the blues yet. Black faces on the giant screens above the tastefully lit stage were unfamiliar to me. I didn't recognize the songs by the first chord - not even Crossroads. I'm pretty sure, however, that Clapton played every song from the album, and then some.