Originally Posted by deadgrandma
Looking at the opening of this, Bon Voyage and Expo I get to thinking:
Remember when Ringo needed a mere spotlight to shine on her like the start of Zazen to send everyone fucking crazy?
Yeah neither do I.
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That's still all it would take, but now she has the money to give us more.
I'm loving this show based on my first view/listen. Like geko said, it beats the first Ringo Expo, although they're not exactly in the same category since the first one was more career-focused rather than showcasing her most recent albums.
I always felt like the performances in Expo-1 were over the top because she knew it was her best material and she wanted to go all-out with it. Unfortunately, by that point, the songs had lost most of their magic. I was getting tired of hearing them and it seemed like she was tired of singing them. It didn't help that she was standing in front of a jumbo orchestra pit and surrounded by lifeless bandmates. Ringo never seemed older than she did during that concert.
She's clearly having more fun with the music in Expo-2 (even with Yattsuke Shigoto, which was a great surprise), and it shows. There's so much more energy, and her voice is on point the whole time. She did the only enjoyable performance of Nippon ever. She's surrounded by familiar faces who, aside from accordion dude, also seem to be enjoying themselves up there (Uki also seemed a little off when he was dancing around the stage instead of holding a guitar/cowbell, but that's often been the case... he's still my favorite bandmate for Ringo).
I enjoyed these dancers more than the OSCAs, but I'm not exactly sure why. I think it has to do with their facial expressions and overall creepiness. Either way, I think I'd rather see a stage absent of dancers, but I don't think they actually detracted from anything. Very much unlike the dancers in Bon Voyage, which had me cringing often.