clapton is still the man

man, that guy still rocks ass, 30 years later. who'da thought i'd have to come to japan to see some genius blues music? there were 9 people on stage (clapton, slide guitarist, other useless guitarist, keyboard, organ, bass, drums, 2 backup vocals), though there was only one guitarist who could've easily been dispensed with.
though cameras were forbidden, of course i tried to take a photo with my cell phone, but was promptly chastised. unfortunately the photo is completely useless.
after the first 3 or 4 songs i was worried that he'd only play new stuff, maybe being tired of playing songs he wrote 30 years ago - but no, he came through with a pretty sweet setlist. the songs i knew were:
after midnight
tears in heaven
before you accuse me
wonderful tonight
layla
cocaine
encore: crossroads
it was cool: he sang them all slightly differently, different timing and stress, so it wasn't just like listening to the recording we've all heard a million times. not to mention the face melting solos. the slide guitarist was the man: steel guitar solos that would make jimi page smile. and the epic organ solos.....ah, hell - everyone had epic solos. and at one point everyone left the stage except clapton, he sat down and played some true acoustic: mic pointed at his guitar and vocals only. awesome. i recognized the song, but don't know the name of it.
once we left i bought a superbly expensive tshirt (3500yen) which has the japan tour dates on it. sweet memento.

after the concert we (my host father and i) went with his work buddies (his company did the sound for the concert, so they got free tickets. nice when tix are 95 bucks!) to a fancy ass dinner
where we had pufferfish sashimi - one of the most dangerous foods (pufferfish is fatally poisonous if not prepared properly - especially when it's raw, sashimi style), and a shiteload of other good food. i was eating with chief engineers and designers, for both toyota and lexus (which are the same company), and some from other companies i don't know. the toyota people were asked to watch what they talked about at the table because some of the people didn't work for toyota, and shouldn't be privy to toyota secrets before they're available to the public. boy did i feel out of my league.

after dinner we headed to a 'snack', which is like a tiny, back-alley fancy-ass little bar
(it seemed like one of those places that unless you'd been there before you'd never know
it existed. we went several floors up an elevator to get there, so no streetfront signage!)
where they completely spoil you with drinks (right down to refilling your glass
when it's half empty, wiping your coaster - you buy the whole bottle of whiskey,
and it just sits on the table to be used liberally), the 'waitresses' are like modern geishas -
they sit with you, make conversation, flirt, and basically treat
you like you are THE man. it's where the salarymen go to unwind after the long
slogging day. what happens at the 'snack' stays at the snack. of course everyone
speaks only japanese (or chinese at this place), so it was some good practice.
anyways, we got home at 4am this morning.
now that's what i call a party.