Southbound

Together we fly south, actually riding again on the Shinkansen from Nagoya to Fukuoka. Julia, Alrik and Tim sharing the same car as me. Sunny day again, and the weather should be fine for a day on the beach. Unfortunately we will not have that much time, the show is at 6pm, Bob isn´t a beach boy I assume.

Nagoya left behind, not much to say about that industrial city, beside they have a car museum from Toyota, a technical and an art museum. Julia, Alrik and me did go out one morning for a short run which was quite nice through some parks. A bit of work-out to get back in shape for the rest of the tour. The hotel we stood had seen better days for sure, but they did compensate that by offering a free happy hour. That means free drinks for the guests for 2 hours in late afternoon. The lobby was crowded by drinking pals, too bad, we had to stay in line at this time already at the Zepp venue. Pay for your ticket and don´t complain, right?!

You know by now that Bob had one surprise song in his set the first night in Nagoya, Workingman Blues #2, which he delivered in a very smooth and mellow version. Kind of jazzy instrumental breaks between the lyrics. And yes, he added some new phrases, too, which made the song a highlight of this tour in Japan. I got myself a nice spot left of the stage, row 5 or 6, with a clear view on Bob and the boys. Great position on night two again. This time middle of the stage, row 6. It was always easy to get that close, even with the high ticket number. And without pushing or fighting. Lots of japanese fans seem to prefer staying in the back, enjoying their drinks and the show. Good for us who wants to get close. But not only because of "Workingman Blues # 2" for me the first Nagoya show was better then the following one. Bob and the band showed so much emotions and seemed to have fun during the whole set. The other night everybody was looking very tired. And Bob missed lots of rhymes, such as "you did wrong all day, then you do wrong all night". Or maybe that was how he wanted it? No way :-D Imagine he screwed "Blowin'" too. How many seas must a mountain exist, come on Bob, are you kidding? Just have to mention, that since the Tokyo shows Arthur Dexter Bradley and Alfred Bello haven´t show up anymore. You know they are famous for following Bob Dylan around the globe just for shouting "Hurricane" during the show. So I did yell "Wiggle Wiggle" last night instead, haven´t done that since Bad Reichenhall in 2001, was about time I must say. Hope the taper won´t blame me ;-) On that second show day, I was playing the first time for the crowd in line since Tokyo. And they seem to enjoy it. You have to play the popular Bob songs, otherwise they will not react to the performance at all. But as soon as I played "Like A Rolling Stone" or "Mr. Tambourine Man" , the second one with nice vocal support by Che, the folks started claping in rhythm. And the moment I blew the harmonica they reacted enthusiastic, well, in a that calm japanese way :-D So that was Nagoya, with that fine Ramen-Noodle restaurant, and the acoustic-signal pedestrian traffic light annoying you the whole night through, while you try to get some sleep in the narrow hotel room. And when you finaly fell asleep, you could be woken up again by some flat-chested junkie whore knocking at your door, ignoring the "Please Do Not Disturb" sign, which happened to Alrik the other night. So now our train is riding through a picturesque scenery, south of Kobe it starts to get more and more country style. Smaller cities, traditional japanese houses, green hills. I feel welcomed already since I am a country man by heart, well, at least I am sometimes. And the comfortable trains make you relax and give you that very enjoyable view on the passing landscape. Did I tell you, that you should enter the cars of the trains always from the back entrance? You should take my advice. Behind the last seat row in the cars there´s space enough for your luggage. You don´t have to lift the heavy pieces up above into the overhead compartments. Good to know, right?! So here we are, four travellers southbound. And it´s ride, ride, ride!