A great performance indeed! Jon even puts on the raspy voice (as on the studio version) during the verses. His voice gets absolutely shot halfway through the performance, though (it even cracks quite audibly a couple of times), but as long as there's energy and passion like this, it doesn't matter one bit. Without a doubt, one of the most impressive/convincing HAND performances I've ever seen. The only thing missing is Richie flashing out the finger after the "when the world gets in my face, I say..." part.

Also these two are in my top 5 performances of Always:

Here Jon nails every single note. It's absolute perfection.

Here the performance is in the studio key and I give it extra points for that. Jon nails most of the song but is out of breath on the " I'll be there till the stars don't shine" part.

Underrated song. The video is interesting. The band ( without David ) were in London I think to promote Sex Sells, which later became Crush. The footage is from late 1998 or early 1999 I think. During the video there is also a funny moment where Tico has a cut out figure of Dave in his hands.

Year after year, month after month, probably even week after week I keep coming back for that performance of Always. Hell, it must be Jon's best vocal performance on any song since 1996, alongside the Sydney (night #3) versions of STBI and These Days...

This one is in my top-3 as well:

David was missing because he had a severe injury after almost cutting one of his fingers off in an accident with a saw. That's why Tico has that cut out figure in one of the shots.

I'm in a Japan 2001 mood tonight:

https://youtu.be/D6O3V2KiqQI (Tokyo)

https://youtu.be/0Uj7VeZpMAU (Osaka)

Hard to decide which one's better... both are superb. Those setlists!

Yeah, I knew that.

I don't know what makes me love this version of Happy Now as much as I do... maybe it's mostly the way Jon sings "everybody's just tryin' to find a way home" around 1:57. Overall, this performance reminds me quite a bit of the Sydney 2010 one:

https://youtu.be/VBKDhBf0azY

For me Osaka is better because Jon delivers a very good rendition of STBI. In the Tokyo show, his voice cracks and sounds rough on STBI. So I give the edge to Osaka.