Review

An Asian tour announcement caught me by surprise earlier in the year. I
wasn’t sure we were ever going to see Bob over this way again (outside
of Japan). So, when it was announced I eagerly pounced on the Taipei, HK
and Singapore triangle (I live in Singapore). I had seen Bob earlier in
the year and I’d say these 3 shows were a notch up on the 2 Rome shows
that I saw. It felt like Bob was experimenting again and although I always
quite enjoyed the odd American Song Book tune, I don’t miss them now
that they seem to be gone (for the time being!). This does mean that Bob
spends the whole time behind the piano now and so there’s a slight lack
of variety to the proceedings. Being the performance artist that he is, I
wonder whether he will find a way to mix that up again at some point.

It was great to hear the harp again but disappointing not to see the
guitar of course, after reading that it had made a brief appearance in
Korea, to start the tour (it didnt even seem to be a possibility here)

My seat was in row 4 (which was the front row as I was way off to the
non-piano side on the aisle, which meant that Bob was essentially looking
in my direction for much of the show. I was wearing my “Thin Man" t
shirt ... so he obviously still has a sense of humour, because that song
never made it through, most likely due to time constraints - the show
started roughly 20 minutes late. Probably because of the seat position,
the sound was a little boomy tonight. 

There were a few on-stage huddles before songs - about 3 if I remember
right - so things may yet change before settling down. Dont Think Twice
was lovely and the Watchtower that rounded off the show was a pleasant
surprise, in a new (to my ears) version. The only mildly disappointing
song was Pay In Blood, which was 'softer' than some of its more menacing
versions.

There were quite a few empty seats downstairs. Possibly because of the
price (significantly more expensive than HK/Singapore) and the difficulty
of buying tickets online in English. The audience was extremely polite and
quiet. Security was in place to watch for phones etc, but hardly anyone
moved a muscle for the whole show.