Fourth Tokyo show, and my fourth of the Japan tour. Some people I talked
after the show said it was awesome, but I felt that it was a little bit
over shadowed by the greatness of the previous night. 

Sure the band is getting better and better every show, with new drummer
Jerry Pentecost starting to do a great job, and the two guitarists Doug
Lancio and Bob Britt playing more and adding richness especially to the
"Rough and Rowdy Ways" songs. 

But tonight I felt Bob's singing fell a little bit short of greatness,
and didn't quite take me to the place he always takes me. It was those
little things like I wanted the ending of "My Own Version Of You"
where he spits out the lyrics to be a little bit stronger, or the part of
"I've Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You" where he stretch out
the words to be just a little bit longer and things like that. (It's
just my opinion so I don’t know if others might agree.)

But just when I thought tonight's show will end this way, he changed
everything with just one song, and that was "Not Fade Away". Sure it
might be that he played it safe by doing the song he and the band both
knew very well, after he couldn't finish "Brokedown Palace" last
night. But it didn't matter because it really changed the atmosphere of
the crowd and maybe raised the temperature for a couple of degrees. After
that the show got better and ended with an always touching "Every Grain
of Sand". 

I thought maybe Bob was a little tired tonight since it took a little time
before he stood up and came in front to see the audience when the show
ended. I even thought for an instant that he was going to do one more song
since he didn't stand up.

Tonight Bob introduced Doug Lancio and asked which one do you think he is,
and said Bob Britt was in the show Colombo and won an Emmy for that and
things like that. 

My personal highlights of tonight were,

Watching the River Flow - This one started with a long intro which set the
pace, and when Bob started singing his voice was strong. Maybe the best I
heard of this song so far this tour.

Not Fade Away - The audience was holding their breath to see what he's
going to play for this fourteenth slot. And it was like he threw in a bomb
into the crowd tonight. We couldn't respond to "Brokedown Palace"
last night, but we surely knew this one as soon as the drum beat and the
guitar riff started and the crowd went crazy. And that excitement didn't
change till the end of the song since Bob and the band played it with such
a blistering power. It was Rock'n Roll at its BEST. I couldn't see
from my seat, but I heard afterwards that Tony did a fist pump when they
finished the song, so Bob and the band must have been satisfied with the
result too.

Every Grain of Sand – Tonight This one didn’t have an intro, and it
began with Bob singing with just his piano for the first verse, and that
seemed to let him sing freely than the previous nights, and it made the
lyrics soak into me more. And after the band slowly kicked in, that
singing continued throughout the song and he finished with a piano solo
and a harmonica solo. It was touching ending as always.

The meeting after the show was fun as always!! Thanks to the ones who
spent time with me and shared there Bob stories!!