Well, I’m back in the US after a 12-day trip to Japan, during which time I was able to see 3 of The Ventures’ concerts: the first was in Okayama on August 27, then in Ota City, Ibaraki Prefecture on September 4, and in Tachikawa near Tokyo on September 5. It was great to see the guys in fine form, in spite of the record-breaking heat this year in Japan. The set list this year has some good variety – including the acoustic set, two of the songs from the new ‘In My Life’ CD, and some other songs that haven’t shown up in a while. The audiences were wonderful, and (as you can see from one of the photos I took), the show in Ota was ‘Sold Out’. I also took photos of the guys at sound check in Ota, together with our long-time stage manager in Japan, Tsukasa-san (aka Steve-O), and – as I often get questions about equipment – there are some photos of the guitars and amps. This year, both Gerry and Bob took their turn with the sitar – Gerry on Kyoto No Koi and Paint it Black, and Bob on Norwegian Wood. The program had a good collage of photos on the cover, which we are including here.
Well, I’m back in the US after a 12-day trip to Japan, during which time I was able to see 3 of The Ventures’ concerts: the first was in Okayama on August 27, then in Ota City, Ibaraki Prefecture on September 4, and in Tachikawa near Tokyo on September 5. It was great to see the guys in fine form, in spite of the record-breaking heat this year in Japan. The set list this year has some good variety – including the acoustic set, two of the songs from the new ‘In My Life’ CD, and some other songs that haven’t shown up in a while. The audiences were wonderful, and (as you can see from one of the photos I took), the show in Ota was ‘Sold Out’. I also took photos of the guys at sound check in Ota, together with our long-time stage manager in Japan, Tsukasa-san (aka Steve-O), and – as I often get questions about equipment – there are some photos of the guitars and amps. This year, both Gerry and Bob took their turn with the sitar – Gerry on Kyoto No Koi and Paint it Black, and Bob on Norwegian Wood. The program had a good collage of photos on the cover, which we are including here.