Michael Bolton in Taipei

On November 8, 2017, my wife and I were in Taipei for the Michael Bolton Concert at the Taiwan University Sports Center. We were only in town for a day; we would go back to Taichung in the morning. We stayed at the Puri Hotel, the hotel with the best mattresses in Taipei; exit 13Y from the Taipei Terminal Station. 

Leona and I hopped on a HSR and headed up in the morning to meet Anita, a college friend of hers who was visiting from Germany; we were supposed to attend the Michael Bolton concert together at the same place we had seen Generation Axe and The Scorpions  earlier in the year; this time we’d be seated. Unfortunately, Anita had a fever and pain in her back from a stone and another of my wife's college friends, William, went as our guest in her place. He met us outside the venue at 7:30 pm.

It was the second time we had seen Michael Bolton, the first being at Jones Beach Theater on Long Island near the entertainment capital of the world: New York City. There is not much of a choice of western acts coming to Taiwan so we went for it despite the 3500 NT ($116 us) charge per ticket.    

The Michael Bolton concert was fun; low key between songs and high energy when he opened his mouth; he still has his vox. He even did rock ‘n’ roll numbers ("Old Time Rock ‘n’ Roll," "Sweet Home Chicago") accompanying himself on electric guitar with surprisingly tasteful lead breaks. He came into the audience just behind us to sing the Percy Sledge song “When a Man Loves a Woman.” I must be a magnet because Zak Wilde in Generation Axe settled near me, too as if to say,‘Let’s go to the only guy who’s dancing and get into it with him,’ they must think, and it is so. William, who replaced ill Anita, took a video of him singing (see below). It was William's first western concert; he said he loved it. 

I stood to dance for a minute in one song and sat down, glad I did, because a lousy usher came over to tell one other woman who continued gyrating to sit down; a typically lame Taiwan crowd. By the finale, "Georgia on My Mind," Bolton looked tired; he’s 64 years old. The concert should have been longer; he came out late after some dork who won a talent contest he judged, and too many breaks to catch his breath.

Video: Bolton Singing Up Close

     We hit our stride after sleeping past 8 am with a down home Brooklyn breakfast at New York Bagel’s restaurant in the main terminal station; I made a fat bastard on a Kaiser roll with a buttered onion bagel and some kinky hash browns. Leona had eggs Benedict. We got back to Taichung from our Michael Bolton trip in enough time to rest before riding in the warm sunshine up to the make-up class in Shengang from yesterday’s postponement. 

    I’m enjoying leftovers from yesterday’s lunch at our favorite Thai place in Gung Guan behind Tai Da. We were shocked when we saw that, after 35 years, they had finally refurbished the joint.

Anita returned to Germany without seeing Leona, William, or their other classmates because of her kidney stone. She definitely got the wrong fever, backed out of Michael Bolton concert ticket we got for her, got on the plane, and left. Leona and William were not happy about it; they wish she had stayed longer. Anita has a lot of baggage, some of it German. She missed a great concert.