On the way there we met a Japanese lady who was also having trouble finding the venue. She ended up standing with us all evening (thankfully her English was very good!). She also said about how expensive this concert was but it was her first time of seeing Todd. Even though she didn’t know the Liars CD afterwards she told me that she’d enjoyed the concert so much that she’d bought a ticket for tomorrow night’s concert too!

This was a standing concert (a Japanese fan had confirmed to me that the reason that Nagoya and Osaka were seated was due to poor ticket sales). The room was probably three quarters full (there was a balcony too). The great thing I did notice is that unlike UK and US audiences, once the concert starts, the fans stay in the room and enjoy the music rather than keep going out for drinks! In fact only one person went out of the door near me for a drink during the whole show.

Security even had the nerve to look in my handbag tonight!! Don’t they trust me in Tokyo?!! He even asked me if I had a camera in my handbag first too! I was honest and told him I didn’t - I did have a camera and even a recorder tonight but they weren’t actually in my handbag! Unfortunately I stood near the side so I was too close to security to take photos as they pretty soon stopped one guy near me. Later someone held a lighter up in the air during one song and they soon snuffed that out too….they would have a fit if they saw the audiences in Germany!

Todd came on stage at about 7.10pm and left at about 10.30pm. They’re playing that dramatic music before the start of Truth like they did in UK. Usually Todd gets to the microphone just before the “I’m gonna find it” line but tonight he was about 8 bars early so he had to just stand there in his cloak!

I thought Todd’s voice showed a few signs of wear in places tonight. He sounded a bit hoarse at one point and certainly in one of the “I was born” lines he realised that his voice was totally off and sung it again.

Todd seemed especially “merry” tonight after his break to change clothes!

Todd has worn the same “skirt” in all the gigs in Japan. Tonight he wore his bright yellow suit. He mentioned a few times how hot it was (and not just for his sons to come on and wipe him down). When he took his jacket off for JOV, there were visible sweat patches on his shirt!

Kasim wore just his priest outfit again (no hat and no glasses) and in the second part he wore his mustard suit (with the waistcoat) and a white shirt. He took off the jacket and waistcoat for the encores.

Kasim’s bass solo IS getting longer and longer each concert! It was even more amazing tonight!! The crowd started clapping (with no prompting from Prairie) almost as soon as Kasim started it! It’s harder for Kasim than the others as during Jesse and John’s “solos” the rest of the band are playing along (and Kasim’s fingers are all up and down his fret during those too) but for the bass solo, it is just 100% Kasim! When Todd came back on stage he called it “Typhoon Kasim”!

During the Jetsons introduction tonight, Todd again said about Sister Judy having no booty and then that “she” was flat assed so Kasim lifted his jacket to show us!

All 3 of Todd’s sons came on stage to wipe Todd down! Even Rebop was wearing a “pimp” suit (it looked like it was Kasim’s red suit that had been shrunk a lot!!) and a bowler hat! Later it was Randy and Rebop who “woke up” Todd. (When it’s time to leave the stage Randy just turns Rebop’s bowler to turn him!) As Todd had feigned surprise at being woken, he knocked over the microphone so one of the techs dashed on stage to pick it up so Todd joked about that being his “mommy”!

Thankfully Love Science was back in the set tonight. I don’t understand why they drop that one as it really gets the crowd going - there were people near me all dancing to that song.

In Flaw the "mother f**ker" at the end was far louder by the audience than in Nagoya and Osaka. Todd said that he was increasing our English vocabulary one expletative at a time! (I also noticed that there were also far more Westerners in the audience tonight than in the other 2 cities.)

It also took me until Osaka to realise that Todd is singing in Flaw "why do you have to be such a lying ass" and not "why do you have to be such a lioness"! That song makes SO much more sense now!

When Todd has changed his clothes and he’s ready to come back on stage, it’s Kasim that has to let the band know and tonight he was visibly calling Jesse (who had turned to face John) for a while as he couldn’t get his attention!

Kasim seemed to have some trouble with his ear pieces tonight as a few times he put them in and out of his ears.

Kasim made quite a bit of eye contact with members of the audience tonight and at the end Prairie gave someone in the audience his drumsticks.

In the line-up both Randy and Rebop joined in. As Rebop bowed his bowler hat fell off so Kasim picked it up and put it on his own head!

Todd ended the concert by calling out "Next year, the Budokan" - a famous large rock venue in Tokyo!

For more reviews and photos of this concert, see TRConnection.com. A comment about Kasim at this concert taken from that site was:
"Much thanks to Kasim for bringing back memories of Utopia for the riffs that he played on his five string bass during his solo portion of "Born To Synthesize."

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