For the third song of his set last night at Madison Square Garden, Eric Clapton invited out the first guest of the night: John Mayer, who Clapton has called a "master" guitar player. They launched into 1989's swaggering, gospel-steeped "Pretending." That was the case throughout Clapton's 70th Birthday Celebration, which featured friends like Jimmie Vaughan, Derek Trucks and Doyle Bramhall Jr. sitting in. It may be an off-year for Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival, but this show felt like being at the fest. Clapton, grey-haired in a vest and glasses, looked professorial, a teacher watching over his musical students with pride. To add to the master-class vibe, gigantic video screens behind Clapton focused more on his fingers than his face, proving he had lost none of his technical facility.??
