Review: - I'm grateful to Japan resident Ann Kavanagh for this personal review

What a night! I didn't know what to expect from this show, was Ferry's voice as it used to be and how would the Japanese audience react? Well, it turned out that I didn't have to worry about Ferry but the Japanese audience was another matter. I brought my husband (who is Japanese) to the show. He had never heard of Roxy Music before meeting me and my attempts at warming him to their sound failed miserably. He predicted a horrible night and a huge waste of money ($800 to be exact-including train). The crowd was made up of a strange assortment of people-from their mid-20's to mid-60's. There were salary men with briefcases and a surprisingly small number of foreigners.
We started the evening in the 19th row with my husband slouching in his seat looking cranky. Then it began! Re-make/Re-model blasted from the stage and it took me about two minutes to notice Ferry who was hidden behind the keyboards. I wasn't expecting Ferry's voice to be as good as in the past but in fact it was better! WOW! For a live show the songs were quite close to the original, and the guitar and sax sounded perfect. I was a little worried during Ferry's whistling in Jealous Guy but again everything went smoothly. For the Japan show did include More Than This perhaps because it was used in a car commercial here. Although it was probably a familiar tune to the crowd, there was little response.
During the first few songs like Ladytron and Re-make/Re-model the crowd just seemed disinterested-like they had all received free tickets and didn't know what to do once they got there. My husband and I moved up to the 2nd row (yeah, there were empty seats that nobody seemed to want) and had a great view. When Ferry introduced Roxy Music there was polite clapping, no cheering! Can you believe it? No cheering! It was actually embarrassing. I felt like I was at the opera! The salary men and ladies mostly remained seated and during Virginia Plain about 10 people replied to, 'What's her name?'.
At one point Ferry seemed a little peeved and mumbled into the microphone, 'Thanks for TRYING'. By the last half hour the foreigners in the crowd had enough of this polite crap and rushed into the aisle in front of the stage. There was a grand total of 8 of us dancing and screaming, trying to show SOME appreciation for this great band. All in all, I would say it was a marvelous show. Ferry looked and sounded great and I actually started crying during Jealous Guy because he was just so good. I couldn't believe I could see them after all these years and in Japan of all places. Because I was in my own little world, the horrible crowd didn't bother me so much. What did my husband think? Well, on the train ride home he looked at me and said, 'Bryan Ferry is sooo cool!'. Need I say more?