| 31 March 2001 - Osaka, Japan Concert Review |
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Oakesy and Yuusuke in Osaka
It was late March when I decided to make the journey down from holidaying in Kyoto to meet my Japanese mate Yuusuke outside Osaka Dome. Getting off the Nagahori sen, I spotted Kato kun walking through the crowd! He was looking tough. We walked around the dome, had a drink in the cafe, and proceeded to our seats. Being one of few foreigners in the crowd, people were looking at me to make sure I wasn't Bon himself!
The concert went quite well. The highlight for me was the fists to the sky from the entire crowd in "Something to Believe In" in time to "hey hey hey heeey"! The Bass droned out and sent shivers up my back. The encores got a bit ridiculous with Twist and Shout proving a popular but slightly out-of-place choice. I would have preferred an energetic version of Runaway. Wanted Dead or Alive was wonderful, and Someday I'll be Saturday night almost had me surfing from the 157th row! Bon needs to concentrate on sounding more like his studio performances, but we shall forgive him this time. He must have been excited himself with thousands of Japanese women screaming after him.
After the performance we made use of the karaoke facilities located on just about every corner of the city, given that Yuusuke had heard a story of two exchange students from our Uni (Kitakyushu Uni) that had gone to karaoke with Bon and Richie after a concert a few years back! It was a sensational night and I was still singing Next 100 Years on the Kintetsu line back to Kyoto. Yuusuke went back home to Kitakyushu on the Hikari Rail Star. These days he works in Nagoya, and I am back in old Australia.
Osaka dome, by the way, is absolutely huge. Pity the Kintetsu Buffaloes are not as huge. As for me, UP THE MIGHTY DAIEI HAWKS! Iguchi! Kokubo! Valdez!
Tim
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