Clapton Plays It Too Safe on Epic Scale

Sponsored by Lexus and sporting a Nike swoosh on his T-shirt, the Eric Clapton who entertained a capacity crowd at the Great Western Forum on Wednesday was about as far as he could be from the young guitar god who quit the Yardbirds 33 years ago because the group was straying from its pioneering blues-rock into commercial pop.

The fans had clearly come to see the man who helped create some of rock’s most enduring forms relive some of his classic moments. Yet they listened patiently--almost reverently--as the 53-year-old musician remained in the now for the opening 40 minutes, highlighting his first new album of original material since 1989, “Pilgrim.”

Supported by a nine-member band (including three backup singers) and a 20-piece string orchestra, the black-clad guitarist had ample musical firepower to reproduce the recording’s layers of sound. While still slick, the album’s bland soul-pop had a lot more bite in concert, and Clapton’s playing was far less restrained on bluesy numbers such as “Pilgrim.”

Singing with power and conviction, Clapton gave the reggae-infused “My Father’s Eyes” a more jubilant tone than the somber recording. But not even his heartfelt vocals could sell some of the more mediocre numbers, which came off as intervals of cool-sounding guitar licks wrapped around a bunch of forgettable verses.

And with all those players on stage, coupled with a sophisticated light show and the obligatory band member solos, the whole affair took on a distinctly Vegas-esque cast.

Between the new songs and the older favorites that balanced the two-hour set came what Clapton dubbed “a phony ‘Unplugged’ “-- an accurate description, since he played solo acoustic for only one song, Charles Brown’s lonesome “Driftin’ Blues.” The band and orchestra joined in for such recent mega-hits as “Tears in Heaven” and “Change the World,” and tiptoed through a folky, almost pastoral take on “Layla” that took all the agony out of Clapton’s iconic expression of unrequited love.

Curiously, he sounded far more soulful and tormented on Freddie King’s “Have You Ever Loved a Woman,” which covers exactly the same subject matter--being in love with your best friend’s woman. Bellowing with a pain you could almost feel, Clapton tore off the evening’s most electrifying blues licks.

It almost made you forgive the 5,000 riff-o-matic solos that did little more than display his still-stellar chops.

Even such rare emotional moments were invariably diluted by Clapton’s apparent need to escalate everything into an epic. A relatively unadorned performance of the poignant ballad “Wonderful Tonight” was disappointingly overblown by a backup singer’s pyrotechnic vocal display.

The closing nod to his old band Cream, “Sunshine of Your Love,” much of which he performed with his back to the crowd, was clearly meant to recall his glory days with that prototypal power trio.

But all it really did was reinforce the gulf between the professional rocker of today and the trailblazer of yesteryear.

* Eric Clapton plays tonight at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim, 2695 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim, 8 p.m. $35-$75. (714) 704-2500.