Eagles Concert

Last Tuesday, Matt and I went to the Eagles concert in Osaka with a group of friends. Neither of us had been to a concert in years and we thought it would be fun to see a classic American band in Japan. Since there were 16 of us going, we rented a bus and driver, rather than taking the extremely crowded rush hour train.

The concert was on a Tuesday night and started at 7:00 p.m., a little earlier than we were used to. The venue was an indoor baseball stadium called the Osaka Dome. It wasn't sold out but it was a massive crowd! The Japanese manage crowds very efficiently though. There definitely is some pushing and shoving (mostly by older ladies) but lines are generally pretty orderly and quick. Since Matt and I decided to go at the last minute, our seats were waaaaaaay far back. The pictures were taken with my phone, so the camera wasn't great from that distance.

The Eagles sounded great, despite their age. They are all in their 60's now. By contrast, when we saw Billy Joel 7 years ago his voice sounded terrible. The Eagles gave a full 2.5 hour concert with no opening act and only 1 short intermission and sounded great all the way through. I suppose it helps to be able to rotate the lead vocals.

The concert experience was kind of odd though. The Japanese yell, whistle and clap for the band to come out and after each song but during the songs they sit in their chairs and quietly watch. There is no standing, no dancing and no singing along! The concert hall was really dark but when there were occasional flashes of light, it looked completely surreal. A huge stadium size venue of people quietly listening! It was more like being at an orchestral concert than at a rock concert. Honestly, it kind of drove me crazy! I wanted to be able to dance and sing! I never realized how important that is to the concert experience, otherwise you might just as well be sitting at home watching it on TV. Especially with a band like the Eagles where you know all the words to their songs. (I kept thinking that Jimmy Buffet must never tour in Japan!) Towards the end of the concert, the people on the floor did stand up and people also clapped along when the band asked them to, but it still felt very foreign.

The other thing that surprised me was that all of the band's commentary was in English. I would have expected them to at least have a Japanese translator. Nobody seemed to care much. However, the band members didn't get many laughs at their jokes. :)

I'm glad we went. However, it was another reminder that no matter how comfortable we get here, our culture is very different from that of the Japanese, in both big and small ways.