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Headline: Evening rocks to classic Clapton By Dan Nailen The Salt Lake Tribune Once Eric Clapton and his current touring band took the stage Thursday at a packed EnergySolutions Arena, it was like music stopped being made from the 1980s and beyond. Not that it was a bad thing. Leaning heavily on his Derek and the Dominos era to provide a set list, Clapton and Co. delivered a slew of songs from the Dominos' 1970 "Layla and Other Assorted Lovesongs" album. Clapton dabbled in other eras of his career, but never to the same effect as when he and fellow guitarists Derek Trucks and Doyle Bramhall II tore into songs from that classic set. Between-song chatter was kept to a minimum as Clapton led his charges through a triumphant start of the show. Clapton gave the band plenty of chances to shine. And shine they did on the show-opening blast of "Tell the Truth," "Key to the Highway," "Got to Get Better in a Little While," "Little Wing" and "Anyday." The 27-year-old Trucks in particular put his stamp on the show immediately, providing stinging slide-guitar lines once played for the Dominos by Duane Allman, co-founder of The Allman Brothers Band with Trucks' drumming uncle, Butch Trucks. The young guitar played the kind of soulful, tasty licks that pushed Clapton to raise his own game when it was time for him to deliver a solo. Clapton was in fine form in both playing and singing; if anything, he ceded too much of the spotlight to his stellar band. But the way the three guitarists traded turns out front, as the two keyboardists, drummer, bassist and two backup singers ably went along, made for a inspired evening. Clapton deserves a lot of credit for filling his band with players who would force him to play great every night, and for eschewing a greatest-hits set list in favor of a heavy dose of blues-rock. Midway through the set, Clapton took a solo, acoustic turn on a gorgeous version of "Driftin' Blues," and the band joined him on stools for killer takes on "Other Woman Blues," "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" and "Running on Faith," the newest song he played all night, from 1989's "Journeyman" album. By the time Clapton reached some of the monster hits the crowd was clearly waiting for, they almost seemed like an afterthought compared to the amazing Derek and the Dominos material. "Wonderful Tonight" was rather perfunctory, while "Layla" earned the biggest cheer of the night and offered keyboardist Chris Stainton his best moments. During the encore, "Cocaine" was stretched out to give Clapton, Trucks and Bramhall each a chance to solo, and opener Robert Cray joined the fray for "Crossroads." When it was all done after about 100 minutes, Clapton had reasserted his brilliance as a headliner, and as a judge of talent when forming his band.