2nd Night In Tokyo Dome 1993
(no label)
Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan – November 14th, 1993
Disc 1 (79:40): Opening, Drive My Car, Coming Up, Looking For Changes, Jet, All My Loving, Let Me Roll It, Peace In The Neighbourhood, Off The Ground, Can’t Buy Me Love, Robbie’s Bit (thanks Chet), Good Rockin’ Tonight, We Can Work It Out, I Lost My Little Girl, Ain’t No Sunshine, Hope Of Deliverance, Michelle, Biker Like An Icon, Here There Anywhere, Yesterday, My Love
Disc 2 (62:50): Lady Madonna, C’mon People, Magical Mystery Tour, Let It Be, Live And Let Die, Paperback Writer, Back In The U.S.S.R., Penny Lane, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band, Band On The Run, I Saw Her Standing There, ‘O Sole Mio, Hey Jude
Off The Ground, Paul McCartney’s first studio work in the nineties, was released on February 1st, 1993. He then spent most of the year on the road on the New World Tour, ending with dates in Japan in November and South America in December. 2nd Night In Tokyo Dome 1993 contains the complete audience recording of the November 14th show in the Tokyo Dome.
An older title Magical Mystery Tokyo (Pluto Records PLR CD 9406) documents parts of the sound check and the performance from a video soundtrack. But this new release utilizes a new audience recording offering the entire show on silver disc for the first time. It’s good but a bit distant. It also becomes distorted in some of the very loud parts such as during “Jet.”
The tape starts off with the ten minute opening video showing a montage of McCartney’s hits. It is a good introduction for those there but it’s quite tedious on tape and easily skipped over. The start of “Drive My Car” is both quite abrupt and exciting. When the song ends, there’s a short funky instrumental interlude leading into “Coming Up.”
“Looking For Changes” is the first new song of the night and afterwards McCartney speaks in (poor) Japanese. “And now I better speak in English, it’s much easier for me” he quips. The play two of Wings’ hardest rockers, “Jet” and “Let Me Roll It” surrounding The Beatles’ “All My Loving.”
Two more new songs, “Peace In The Neighbourhood” and “Off The Ground” (sounding every bit a rewrite of the unreleased song “Waterspout” from the Cold Cuts collection) follow.
“Robbie’s Bit (Thanks Chet)” is a solo acoustic interlude in the style of Chet Atkins played by Robbie McIntosh, late of The Pretenders and support for McCartney from 1988 to 1994. The rest of the band return for a rocking version of “Good Rockin’ Tonight,” the only rockabilly cover in the set.
“I Lost My Little Girl” is a song McCartney points out is the first song he wrote when he was fourteen. He gives a short instruction on the chords for the band. Afterwards he switches to drums and gives the stage over to Hamish Stuart, late of the Average White Band and support for McCartney since 1989. They play a neat cover of “Ain’t No Sunshine,” the 1971 Bill Withers hit.
Several more new songs, the great “Hope For Deliverance” and the single “Biker Like An Icon” are played around “Michelle.” Before “Here, There, Anywhere” he jokes about sitting at home and watching sumo wrestling as he leads into the first words “To lead a better life I need my love to be here.”
“Yesterday” is played early in the set, “My Love” is “for the lovers” in the audience and “Lady Madonna” is played with a disco beat. The final new song of the night is “C’mon People,” his anthem and plea for world peace and universal harmony.
The rest of the show is chock full of Beatle and Wings songs. “Magical Mystery Tour” has an interesting coda tacked onto the piece, “Let It Be” is a song “for all the people in trouble tonight,” and “Live And Let Die” is a massive pyrotechnic display. The final song of the set is “Band On The Run.”
The first encore is “I Saw Her Standing There” which Paul dedicates to all those who are still in the mood to rock. They continue with a brief excerpt of the Italian song “O Sole Mio” as an introduction to “Hey Jude.” McCartney leads the audience in singing the chorus for several minutes, directing who to sing and when.
2nd Night In Tokyo Dome 1993 is a good release of one of his final live concerts in the nineties. After the New World Tour ended he devoted his time to the Beatles Anthology and other solo works and wouldn’t tour again until 2002. It’s unfortunate that the set list is “songs from the new album plus Beatle + Wings classics” instead of a more balanced mix of more contemporary material. When he would resume touring in 2002 this arrangement would continue. Nonetheless it is an enjoyable concert and with the good sound is worth having.
