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 My Room (solo)
Easy To Slip Away
Nothing Comes
Too Many Of My Yesterdays
Vision
Comfortable
Shingle Song
Last Frame
Ophelia
Time For A Change
Patient
Bubble
A Better Time
Faculty X
Stranger Still
Traintime (encore)
Thanks to SG for the setlist!
Hammill Yahoo! Group review
I was asked to meet Tom Ohsawa (gig organizer) at the Astro-Hall at 5pm.
I arrived earlier in the hopes of catching part of the soundcheck. Tom & co.
were running late, so there i was waiting in the hall while some Japanese
teenager endlessly repeated hie, hie, hie, tks, tks, tks... into the mic.
Like all things Japanese, the Astro-Hall is very small, the seating area
being 30` x 30` and the stage half that. Big difference from the QEH! After
an hours wait, a tall, lanky, grey haired man crossed the stage with guitar
case in hand. Once across the stage, he took his dark blue coat obviously
better suited for the UK winter than the hot and sunny Tokyo weather of
late. He proceeded to circle the stage waiting for the young Japanese
`roadie` to remove himself from the keyboard. To my surprise none took
notice of me and there I sat quietly in the corner. Peter ran up and down
the keyboard fitting in chords here and there... nothing recognizable,
requesting less reverb / NO REVERB! More Punch, more flat, too high! Once to
his liking he went in search for his guitar which disapeared from the stage.
Meanwhile in popped David Jackson, who had arrived at noon and quite tired
even with his small nap at the hotel. I greeted him, and with a little
prompting, `Ah yes, Sean from Canada..` By this time, Stuart was onstage,
trying to get his gear to work. Japan/UK power cables aren`t exactly
compliant. From what I saw, Stuart didn`t get much of a soundcheck. Peter by
now had found his guitar and proceeded to tune it. (Note: only one guitar,
leaving all those alternate tuning songs off the setlist) Tom Ohsawa had
spotted my presence and as I pulled my camera to take a great picture of
Peter, he told me `NO PICTURES!` Not wanting to offend I put it away.. a
shame. After getting my tickets, with everyone backstage and the only one
without a pass, there was little option but to leave. As is Japanese custom,
you must line up outside before the concert, and this time they made us get
in ticket number order!! Real confusion. I met some very nice fans outside,
noteably Satoru and Hideo. Hideo and I sat together and was pleased to learn
he spoke english very well. I was also pleased PH & DJ cds were on sale at
the back of the `hall` and picked up the 2 newish DJ cds before they sold
out! As usual the concert started right on time, 7 sharp. A quick
runthrough: My Room (solo) - Great version... his improved piano
playing is still holding up. After he began to tell the crowd the big news.
He was feeling very `flaky`. earlier in the day he felt ill and thought it
was his heart again. Swift off to emergency by ambulence he learned it was
only stress. Anyhow, we were definitly lucky he was there tonight.. a real
scare. He introduced Stuart and also mention Stuart had problems with his
Brain. Not the one on his head but the one controling his equipement.
Easy to Slip Away, Nothing Comes followed by Too Many of My
Yesterdays. Vision was great, much more solid than the at the
QEH. On to the guitar with Comfortable, Shingle Song (acapella
start) and Last Frame. Even though he had a scare that day, Peter
wasn`t pulling any punches and was `Power On` intensity wise. Opelia
(a breather?) and started Patient. He abruptly stopped and appologized `Oh
no not yet..` and went a very `theatrical` Time for a Change. As
expected he then played Patient. Stuarts playing was superb, and his
sound was even better. In it`s peak it was like a thousand airplanes taking
off which made it even more chaotic than usual. Stuart had a hard time
keeping up with Peter, not always able to see over his shoulder to keep in
time with his ecclectic timing. Bubble, nuff said. Peter then told us
that he would be playing any newer songs because of the day he had and went
into A Better Time and without a pause he broke into none other than
Faculty X! For lack of a better expresion, it rocked! There was even
a moment of improve towards the end where you thought he was going into
another song, but collected it all with a great finish. Never heard a
version like that. He started the last one for the set, Stranger Still
and looked like he was going to burst a lung at the end. Commitment! He came
out and said this is the last one then straight to bed. Seemed like he was
contemplating which song to play, he chose Traintime. A great
concert.. in my humble opinion. One down, three to go.
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