Review of my Tokyo shows!

The shows in Tokyo are over, and looking back, the second night, which was Bob Dylan concert number 100 for me, impressed me the most. Of course seeing Bob a hundred times is something special, that night will still be remembered because of the kind of strange things that happened during the performance. Getting into the venue the japanese way, which means you have a section and a number on your ticket, and there´s an anouncer outside who counts you up. Soon your number is told you are allowed to move in. Funny though if you don´t have a clue of japanese. Could get it managed someway anyhow. Found a good spot in row 3 right behind Julia and Laurette who made it to the rail, right in front of the grand piano. Lucky gals!

But I was satisfied with my place, free view on the stage, very close. Have to say a big thank you to Masato who got those Tokyo tickets for me! Arigato Masato! After Stu noodeling his "Noodle" the band and Bob appeared, greeted by loud welcoming of the crowd, starting up with the usual "Things Have Changed" , setlis wise they haven´t ;-) A nicely new arranged "She Belongs To Me" followed and "Beyond Here Lies Nothing" were getting on it´s way with Bob hammering the keys of the grand piano. The first 2 songs he performed standing center stage. Close to the end of the song the incident happens: It came with a loud bassy noise out of the monitors, and it stood for minutes. George jumped away from the drums, he obviously felt painful since he got that noise into his earplugs which seems to be connected to the monitoring system. Same with Tony, who definitely looked hurt. Bob kept on playing, so did Donnie and Charlie. Stu tried to keep the rhythm, but failed like everybody else after some more seconds. The sound engineers already occupied the stage, in a state of emergency. Everybody seems to be really confused, and the noise kept on and on and on. Jules the stage mixer finally decided to cut the monitor system and so that noise were turned off. But the problem wasn´t found yet. Anyway, since Tony and George had left the stage, Bob, Charlie, Donnie and Stu came closer together at the grand piano and started a nice little bluesy jam-session to satisfy the crowd while the engineers were still looking for the troublemaker. I have to say, for me, this jam could have last forever, but those 10 or 15 minutes will stay in my mind a long time for sure. Since the stage crew finally decided it must be something wrong with the cables under Bob´s piano, the band had to stop and left the stage accompanied by huge applause. While the technicians doing their job under the piano, a kind of burlesque show took place: first it was Stu who came back on stage earning a big hello from us spectators. With a little grin on his face -you know that cool style of Bob´s guys- he walked around, picked up a drumstick and hit the cimball at George´s drums a few times, loud ovations from the crowd. Then he walked farther to the left givin' Tony´s double bass a try, very funny, turning his face to the audience when picking a few notes. After that he disapeared backstage again. Thus of us who may have thought that this was just little joke of Stu were surprised again, when Donnie came out, just acting as if he were checking the amplifiers, all that whilst the boys are still working under the piano. Donnie got his clapping too, went off the stage, but shortly after he had left there was Charlie appearing on the scene with Bob in his company. Powerful yelling, screaming and clapping from the crowd. But the both act as if they don´t mind, walking to the guitar lying in front of the drums, always waiting there for Bob, if he ever decides to play the strings again. The audience turned crazy. But of course, all this was another kind of joke, but definitely did entertain us perfectly. Lots of Bob-yellers as they were heading into the dark again. In the end it was George who took a glimpse, grabbing the double bass and picking a few notes, facing the lucky ones at the rail with a bright grin. But then there was an anouncement that it will take some more 15 minutes or so to fix the problem. The lights went on and we had some time to talk things over. Maybe the ordinary one-time-to-a-Bob-show spectator felt bad because of all this what happened. For us followers it was big fun! Besides Jules, Jason and all others of Bob´s crew may felt that all this wasn´t funny at all! Meanwhile they found it was a problem of the monitors, so Jules decided to keep them off during the rest of the show and to use the big speakers on both sides of the stage as monitors instead. After all that worked out perfectly, plus we had a much better sound in the first rows! Thanks Jules, you´re best! (Well he always is, just remember that hot day in the sun in Lyon 2012, when we were drying out at the rail and he past by handing us bottles of water for free!!! Don´t we know the sun can burn our brains right out?!) After the show I talked to Jason at the main soundboard, and he told me, if they could solve a problem like this, he´s not afraid of any problems in future. But he was looking for an extended shift he added, they must get the monitors working again. And they made it as we know by now, good job folks! After about 25 minutes the lights went off, the band hits the stage a second time and Bob delivered a phenomenal "Huck´s Tune". Okay, it was the third performance of this beautiful song, but for me it was a premiere!!! And what a performance, soft, intense, totally in the song, I was almost crying, believe me. For me the highlight of an evening with lots of top notch songs. "Duquesne Whistle" drove the crowd nuts, the japanese Bobfans added a kind of "wohooo" sing-a-long in the instrumental part. Very funny, even the band, especially Tony and Bob had a laugh! "Love Sick" as always these days, a cool rocker we all love. Bob ended the song with thanking us in japanese "arigato"!!! Exploding applause of course. During the intermission we decided to name the jam-session a "new and unexpected" song, and maybe "Everything was broken" could be the right title :-D Second part of the show with the static setlist, but a warm and powerful "Scarlet Town" the place where we all were born, right?! Then line-up in the end addressing the audience, and no autographs were give this time :D Too bad for me, since I handed my harmonica to lovely Julia at the rail. But Bob decided to keep cool and left us behind with given us another fantastic show and concert this very night on April 8th 2014 in Tokyo!

Arigato Bob, Tony, Charlie, Stu, George and Donnie. We´ll meet again stepping down the avenue! Next stop will be Saporro, see you all there, I´m already on my way.