Check out my colleague Jim Rassol's two most recent entries at Click!, the Sun-Sentinel staff photography blog. In the first, he's got great pictures up from Monday's Radiohead concert in West Palm (more of which are available at the photo gallery I mentioned in my last post), and an interesting story about his semi-obsessive efforts to see the experimental British band in concert.

Below that, he's posted photos from his recent field trip to Jazzfest in New Orleans. Out of sheer jealously I'd call it a junket, except that he went on his own dime just to enjoy himself and snap a few pictures.

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Radiohead review and photo gallery here. Set list below the fold. But first I'd like to know how Monday's Radiohead concert at Cruzan Amphitheatre - opening night of the tour - went over with people watching from the lawn.

I ask because Radiohead played without what you could call Lawn TV - the venue's twin-video screens, which are mounted at the back edge of the pavilion roof in order to extend the show visually to the big, unreserved seating on the grassy hill.

Even without screens, you would of course still be able see the stage and hear the music. But for me, on a brief trek across the lawn about eight songs into Radiohead's set, the band felt farther away than bands playing Cruzan usually do. I attributed that sensation to the missing video.

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John Yarling is one of the busiest and most versatile drummers working in South Florida. He's recorded and played live with more people than most of us have met, and on Monday, he drew yet another assignment: Review Eric Clapton in concert at Hard Rock Live. Here's what he saw and heard:

From the second song on it was mostly blues, with a few of the hits along the way. Clapton gave second guitarist Doyle Bramhall II room to play both regular and slide guitar, and keyboardist Chris Stainton had a few solo spots as well. Clapton sounded good, but seemed to be going through the motions at times. Bramhall didn't really get it going, either, during his solos. But Stainton was energetic, and I got the impression he was trying to move things along.

Clapton's voice was in fine form throughout, and the vocals of Bramhall and the two background singers were spot-on. A solo acoustic interlude where Clapton played Driftin' and Driftin' was one of the high points of the night.

The full band returned and stayed mostly acoustic for Wonderful Tonight. Of course, Bramhall and Clapton traded back and forth on Layla, switching parts at times, with Bramhall playing slide. Everyone in the crowd was up on their feet at the first notes of Cocaine, and they stayed up for the encore: pedal-steel guitarist Robert Randolph sitting in for a version of Got My Mojo Working.

The band was never introduced. (Doyle Bramhall II, guitar, vocals; Chris Stainton, keyboards; Pino Palladino, bass; Ian Thomas, drums; Sharon White, backing vocals; Michelle John, backing vocals). They were tight for the most part and, like Stainton, drummer Thomas was doing his part to raise the energy level. Clapton looked tired, though, and with a two- or three-day beard he looked older than I expected.

But I enjoyed the concert. Even when not hitting on all gears, Clapton still sounds great. The production was classy and not overdone; simple lighting and backdrops were pretty much it. I am glad I got to see him one more time before he possibly retires.

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Update 5/5: I missed a song, Kitty's Back which he played as I was backing out the door during American Land.

Review posted here. Also, note the remarks about poor sound in the comments section. These follow scathing criticism of the mix when Van Halen played the same building in February. But then, sound was an issue at several stops on the Van Halen tour, whereas I can't remember ever hearing a complaint before now about audio at a Springsteen show.

BankAtlantic Center, like all its arena brethren (Staples Center, AmericanAirlines Arena, etc.), poses a challenge to any visiting sound crew. It's difficult at best to wire up a large, mix-used facility whose primary tenant is a sports team. But I've generally found the acoustics there to be acceptable. Maybe there were bad pockets in last night's mix? For what it's worth, I was sitting in section 120, a few rows off the floor, closest to Clarence Clemons and Nils Lofgren, and from there the sound was pretty true.

Blood Brothers
The Promised Land
I Wanna Be With You
Radio Nowhere
Out in the Street
This Hard Land
Gypsy Biker
Growing Up
Candy's Room
Prove It All Night
She's the One
Livin' in the Future
Mary's Place
Girls in Their Summer Clothes
Devils Arcade
The Rising
Last to Die
Long Walk Home
Badlands

encores

Thunder Road
Born to Run
Rosalita
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
American Land

Update II 5/5: And here's the handwritten original, which barely survived all the in-show revisions:

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Not two posts ago I was talking about the odds of Bruce Springsteen inviting some special guest or other on stage this Friday, and Sheryl Crow beats him to it.

This is not - repeat not - to say that Clapton, or anyone, is going to sit in with The Boss and the E Street Band at BankAtlantic Center. I don't know one way or the other. It's just that Bruce is known for bringing out musicians he admires, and, heck, with Clapton in town ahead of his Monday night show at Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, well, who knows ... I'm not lobbying here, just talking ... really.

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Two California couples will split a $10,000 reward for discovering the tattered remains of a giant porcine concert prop.

The Associated Press notes the massive, inflatable oinker had spent part of Sunday floating above a gig. Ex-Pink Floyd musician Roger Waters was playing closing night at Coachella, a rock festival in Indio, California, when the pig that's been part of the P-Floyd stable since the 1970s broke free of its moorings and sailed off.

Its minders posted a $10,000 reward, which will go to two couples living a few miles from the concert site. Each found separate pieces of the downed, deflated swine on their property.

As Reuters pointed out, this wasn't the pig's first escape attempt:

"Back in 1977, it floated away on the second day of a photo shoot at the Battersea Power Station in London and was later recovered and used for an album cover."

South Floridians might recall the pig's 2007 cameo at Cruzan (formerly Sound Advice) Amphitheatre in western Palm.

Finally, for a recap of Coachella, flying pigs and all, pay a visit here.

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They weren’t much to look at, the four guys in Spoon, but the plainness of their live presentation was not a blindness to style. The Austin, Texas rock band, which played on April 16 in Fort Lauderdale with a big drab sheet as a backdrop, understands very well the uses and the limits of being stylish

There was an acute formalism to the songs Spoon played at Revolution (packed to the ductwork that Wednesday night with an undetermined ratio of paid to comped), and you could call that musical tailoring a fashion sense. One element of style is reference — letting the tune tell the listener who the songwriters admire and whose labels they would gladly wear. Spoon did its referencing in careful, calibrated doses — enough to own up to certain influences without being accused of excess tribute or outright theft.

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