I saw Cream in fall of 1968, October, Olympia Stadium in Detroit (the old Red Wings arena). The stage was set up in the middle of the arena, me and my friends were lucky to have seats in the first row of the ‘regular hockey seats’ (there were chairs set on the floor as well), and we happened to be close to the center of the arena so we were close to them, and by luck a little in front of them (there was seating behind them as well IIRC) - perfect seats IMO.
Clapton was all in white - white pants, white shirt, white mod jacket. Clean-shaven, perfectly coifed long-ish straight hair hanging over and semi-hiding his face. There was no ‘show’ put on - they weren’t showmen except for Ginger Baker (RIP), who looked just like Sesame Street’s “Animal”, who I figured was modeled on him … tho Ginger also looked like he was 100 years old, altho he was 28. Jack Bruce (RIP) was all business but went all-out, workman-style. He quickly looked a mess up there, but he wasn’t there for his looks. Powerful voice, and much more of a bass-playing virtuoso than we knew or were expecting. And the band was all business … serious British Blues from start to finish. Massively loud, especially Clapton … but we were used to that, and after all that’s what we were there for … we loved it.
The performance was magnificent … three guys sounding every bit as good as their records (except the opening to “White Room”, which they did as a voice-harmony). Clapton was absolutely virtuosic (spoiling me from ever appreciating, for example, Jimmy Page in the two times I saw Led Zep), as we got used to him being - tho his voice was noticably weaker than Bruce’s, and he seemed to use it in the upper ranges as if that’s where he wanted to be, tho he’s not a tenor. Bruce never went into falsetto on “White Room”, which he did on the record I believe … and he sounded better in his regular voice here.
They played their classic Cream songs (from what I remember) including “Sunshine of Your Love” (which Clapton introduced, saying only, “And now … our Hit”), “White Room,” “I’m So Glad,” “Politician,” the great “Deserted Cities of the Heart” (my favorite Cream song), “Spoonful”, “Crossroads”, Baker’s “Toad” & “I Feel Free”. It was powerful, wonderful … Clapton was Clapton, Bruce was so impressive, and Baker was Ginger.
We’d seen, just weeks before, the magnificent “Jeff Beck Group” (Beck, Rod Stewart on vocals, Ronnie Wood on bass, the great Nicky Hopkins on keyboards, Micky Waller on drums), and in a smaller venue … so the bar had set been extremely high for us. This concert was every bit as good … and in a live performance there’s a huge built-in advantage in having an additional instrument up there, which Jeff Beck had in Nicky Hopkins (RIP), as well in having a smaller venue (for sound quality).
From: https://www.quora.com/What-was-it-like-to-see-the-band-Cream-play-live
