Orlando-April 12th, 2018

And…back on the road for the final leg (for EVERYONE LOL) of the OMD tour. 3 shows in sunny FL. I had an early flight that originally seemed like it was going to be late due to being “about 12th in line to take off so we’ll be sitting here at least the next 20 minutes.” but ended up coming in on time due to some tail winds. Rental car pick up was a bit off due to mis-representation of the car company but in the end, I made it to my hotel, got ready and headed off…only to realize I had forgotten my ticket. 😮 I won’t go into detail why/how that happened but it set me back a little with time. Luckily, strangely enough (or maybe just because Orlando is smaller than Chicago), majority of the traffic was going AWAY from the city so I moved quickly (in Chicago, it’s bad during rush hour going out AND in…I’m usually going in).

Well, a last minute surprise of a few days prior to gig was that a Toronto friend was coming down and then doing the concert with one of his Toronto friends who had moved to FL a few years back. Brydon and Jennifer were going to join the already formed clan of myself, Mark, Kim and Pammy. (I had met Jennifer back at the VERY first OMD NA show of March 2011 and we all had gone to do kaoraoke after. Got back to my friends house at like 3am hahahaha but SO much fun! 😀 ) Thanks to Mark for saving spots, we managed to be up close and together for the first half of the show. (later Mark and I offered a girl to switch with a girl behind us in a wheelchair. At first I thought we would both go behind her and I’d be standing by Brydon and Jennifer, Mark on my other side but as it turned out, she had to arrange her chair such that she was still set back a bit but it was rolled almost up. There was a little ramp like thing from the barrier so not safe to be uneven. I came around to get behind and Mark said for me to stay where I was as there was a bit of room on the rail so he got behind me and…there ya go. I just had to wave and occasionally look back at Brydon and Jennifer now though as they were a bit further away but it all worked out. 😉 )

Right…so been exactly 2 weeks since my last OMD show and I was ready! Not just for them but for GGOOLLDD…with my shiny LED shoes!!! I actually had some girls behind me in airport security say they liked them and a guy at the mall I stopped at prior to the show…and that was WITHOUT them lighting up LOL. So when Margaret and Co. came out, I had taken my shoes off and put them on my hands to then dance them around a bit on the rail. Kim started pointing to me and when Margaret saw, first she pointed and laughed, then she started pointing to her shoes and mine. I THOUGHT she was just gesturing like “yeah, we match” or something (though hers are obviously gold vs. my silver 😉 ) but then she started saying something. It took me a minute to figure out she was saying her one shoe wasn’t working, could we swap. I started to laugh and she said “Size 9?” I shouted back “no, 7 and a half.” She frowned but then I realized hold up…I had read the reviews that the shoes ran small so I got a size bigger. I then yelled “No wait…SIZE EIGHT AND A HALF!!!” so she came over and took her right shoe off. I laughed and took mine off too and the security guard came over to help us swap. Just as I was handing mine over, I realized OMG I have my orthotics in there (flat foot and knee problems so gotta have those, ESPECIALLY for bouncing! 😉 ) I said something and Mark quickly reached in and grabbed one…but I have 2 (custom made and then just a general soft lining to put on top..he grabbed the that top one hahahaha) so..ah well, she had my shoe AND the custom orthotic. 😀 😀 😀 She sat down, wiggled a little bit and was able to get her foot in my shoe so off she went. I tried to get a pic with my mismatched shoes but it was too dark but it was quite funny! After the first song though, she came back and started to take it off. I thought maybe she felt I wanted mine back so I started motioning it was OK and when she started taking mine off, I yelled “no no, it’s OK keep it!” but she shouted back that mine was higher than hers. So..more swapping back BUT, hers was working again. Not sure what had happened but as soon as I had put hers on, it started blinking and I laughed as I had shouted to Kim “it’s WORKING now”. So when I handed it back to Margaret I said the same thing and she looked, then said “oh, you FIXED it.” It was all really too funny! 😀 😀 😀 Having not heard them for 2 weeks also made me really enjoy each and every song vs. just 2 or 3. 🙂

When it was time for OMD, I got excited again and the crowd seemed to really enjoy GS. When it was over, Mr. M. looked out and said “we made it back! It’s GOOD to be back.” Yup…6.5 years ago they played this exact venue so… 😉 Mark and I didn’t have to wait long to get our bouncing going as Isotype took off and when Mr. M. got his bass, pointed to it and said “OLD song…”, the crowd got even more excited and cheered loudly. He yelled “did you bring your dancing shoes?” I laughed and we all pointed to my light up shoes (that I had turned off for part of the intermisson but put back on for OMD). I started to lift one up and then Kim and Mark helped and i got it all the way up onto the rail…but no one saw LOL. Ah well, we all had a good laugh. 😀 😀 All the guys were big smiles when it was over and Mr. M. said “well, it seems like it’s going to be a good Thursday night!” 🙂 It was right about then that we heard “We love you PAUL!” I suddenly remembered having a few shows on the 2011 tours that had that so tried to think back if Orlando was one of them. I THINK it may have been but would have to check the old blog LOL. But it got a big smile out of Mr. H. 😀 Once over and the crowd was still cheering, Mr. M. laughed and said “don’t over do yourselves…we have 7 more hours of this to go.” I thought “wow, he just keeps adding the times. First we had 3 hours, then 5, now 7?!?!” Everyone cheered and then he looked over at the security guards on the side and said “don’t worry, you’re all on overtime.” 😀

Once the bass was gone, Mr. M. looked out at everyone and said “this next song is about the end of the universe. Just bounce up and down and pretend you enjoy it.” OK! 😀 I looked over at Brydon and Jennifer and saw she was bopping and he was bouncing. YAY! 🙂 When it was time for Mr. H. to come down and do FLaD, Mr. M. joked and said “you’re all in for a rare treat. We are letting the synth God out of his chains.” And of course Mr. H. coming front and center elicited another “We love you PAUL!” 😀 He seemed to be really happy and when the song was over, there were a lot of cheers. Mr. M. did a little bow to him as he came back to the keyboard, then started to introduce IYL by saying “so about 30 years ago..” everyone cheered and he jokingly said “I haven’t told you anything yet.” 😀 No but many of us can guess hahahaha 😉 He continued to explain and introduce IYL and prompted us to sing louder part way thru. This was also the song he came down onto one of the monitors to slap Marks hand, a couple others and he was able to reach and shake the hand of the girl in the wheelchair too (darn, wish I had gotten her name) so…yay again! 🙂

Then it was time for the A&M trio. No headbanging tonight, replaced by swaying with hands and body to which Stuart recipricated. 🙂 As always, great to see the dynamic duo and this time, since I had a perfect spot and view, I got Stuart after MoO as he always flops back like “PHEW!” The crowd ate it all up and when Mr. M. finally went back to the mic he said “I make it look easy but it’s not. Too many ingredients…you have to be fit and not give a f*ck.” OK…good to know LOL 😉 When the lights went down and the stage got ready for OAtTWM, I watched as each of the guys came forward. It was cute because Mr. H. and Mr. C. were having to cross paths to get to their spots so Mr. H. gestured for him to go first. Then Mr. H. walked past Mr. M. to get to his spot and pretended to be tripped by Mr. M. Kim and I both saw it and started cracking up…as did Mr. M. 😀 Pammy was the lucky recipricant of Stuart’s drumstick during OAtTWM then funny thing…I was swapping places with Mark so I could hide my crying and Mr. M. was telling everyone that “Paul is going to be right back here in front…in just a minute…” when we suddenly heard “Just do it Paul!” It came from the same area that the love shouts had and as Mr. M. went over to the keys, he laughed and said it to Mr. H. too. Mr. H. laughed and Mr. M. repeated it one more time. 😀 Yeah, they were for sure having fun tonight! 😀 😀

Of course it was now time for the “intellectual part of the show” to be over. SiL and Locomotion went fast and I chuckled because near the end of Locomotion, I noticed one of the crewmen (I think Kim said his name was Danny) bopping back and forth and as Mr. M. would call out the venue sections, he would look and point to them. Cute! 🙂 I had totally forgotten TPoL until they started it but was like “Oh YEAH, hey, hey HEY!” 😀 SotSS got the cute little hand shake from Mr. M. and I did the bowing down to Mr. C. when he was done. He and the rest of the band were so smily all night. 😀 Mr. M. then introduced Stuart and, looking back at him said “are you ready to bring us home?” Stuart nodded and off they went into Enola Gay. Wow, show was going quickly!

Brydon started the OMD chant and Mark, Jennifer and I immediately got on board, then some others did too and the guys came out still all smiles. They all waved and thanked us and then it was time for Dreaming. More hand slaps on this one as Mr. M. went to the far side and stepped on a monitor. Some girl came around to try and get to the front barrier section but the guards stopped her. Mr. M. saw her so he stepped back down and motioned for her to come so she did and he shook her hand. 🙂 One more Mr. H. song (didn’t hear the love shout though LOL) and then it was “our fastest song we have”. One final bouncing session and then…it was over. Of course a big group picture and then sadly I had to say goodbye to Brydon and Jennifer as they had a midnight megabus to catch. While waiting to get my picture with Margaret (and our shoes too 😉 ) I saw Irene and Stephan had come. They made some shows! 😀 Lots of pics after so it was just a great night and good to be back on the OMD road. 🙂

SO….highlight of the night. Well, I think I’m going to say all the fun with my shoes. How crazy that Margaret and I swapped temporarily and also just the goofy lift for “dancing shoes” and antics after the show with pictures. I wasn’t going to wear them for the other 2 shows but…I think I may put them on for tonight (though sadly, the left doesn’t seem to be charging properly so…not sure what is up with that. 🙁 🙁 We’ll have to see….)