St. Petersburg-4.13.18

So…day 2 in FL and it was a hot, humid one for sure! I made a couple stops along the way before arriving to my hotel. Nothing fancy and about 18 miles away from downtown St. Petersburg and the venue but…meh, I had a rental car so I didn’t care LOL. What I DID care about though was that the show ended up being a later one. The ticket said 8pm and that had always meant doors at 7pm so I had planned on finishing the Orlando blog when I got back to my hotel. I had written it out back before leaving Orlando but hadn’t touched the pics or anything. Well, turns out I could have done it before leaving for the show because for THIS one, 8pm meant DOOR time. Ugh! Gonna be a late night now. 🙁 On the up side, Monica (who came to see the final 2 shows along with Diane and her friend Madison) told me of a good sweets boutique shop and since it was cheat day, I went down the block to get some munchies. 😀 There was also an “OMD Pre-Party going on at the local record shop literally right across the street. Though funny enough, in the almost 2 hours I was in line, I only heard 2 OMD songs played so… 😛

This venue had a low stage and no barrier so it was going to be a nice, up close and personal night LOL. (though not as low a stage as Milwaukee…perfect really 🙂 ) Right in the middle was another woman in a wheelchair and during GGOOLLDD, Margaret went off stage with her cape. Originally I thought she was having techincal difficulties but then shortly after, I could see her on the side of the room and next thing I knew, she was coming thru the crowd to start flapping the cap around the woman in the wheelchair before giving her a hug. The woman seemed surprised but thrilled, very sweet. 🙂

When it was time for OMD and lights went off, the crowd lit up. GS went down really well and when things settled, Mr. M. smiled and said “I’m just going to say a few words…New songs, old songs, bouncing!” More cheers and many of us answered the call to bounce for Isotype. Even MORE cheers for Messages, then Mr. M. turned to look at Stuart and said “Stuart, is your sweat making your sun tan hurt?” It WAS hot! I tell ya, I don’t like Chicago weather but I could NEVER live in FL with the heat and humidity! 🙁 Lots of bouncing coming from our area for HoM LOL and then when it was time for Mr. H. to come out for FLaD, Mr. M. chuckled and asked him if he’d be able to come out. This venue had a very small stage so things were a bit squashed…on BOTH sides of Mr. H. Where he would normally come down past Stuart, he couldn’t as Stuarts elevated platform stuck out too far. And when he tried to come out the other side, he had to do it carefully saying “If I don’t fall off here”. Poor Mr. H. 🙁 But he made it and everyone swayed and enjoyed FLaD. 🙂

Once Mr. M. and Mr. H. were back in their normal spots, Mr. M. said “There’s been a lot of ways I’ve introduced this next song over the course of this tour. But I’m just going to go over and read this woman’s SHIRT.” He walked over to the far corner stage left and leaned in to then read to all of us “It SAYS…’released and directed by John Hughes’.” Well, that’s all he needed to say because everyone knew what it meant and cheered. 😀 The A&M trio was next and Mr. H. got a lot of cheers again with Souvenir. When MoO was done, Mr. M. laughed and said “dance like you don’t give a f*ck. Just don’t let your teenagers see you.” and he looked in the direction of a man who had apparently been in sound check with his teenage son. Both Mr. M. and the dad laughed. 😀 Will never get tired of seeing them do OAtTWM and as it started, it really got a big cheer. Oh, forgot to mention, someone in the crowd to the left of us kept doing the type of whistle that you put your fingers into your mouth to make. OMG, it was loud and they kept doing it all through the night. Kim and I would look at each other after the person let out a few and laugh. Hey, apparently they were really enjoying the show! 😀

Once we were into the “mindless dancing” bit, things seemed to move pretty quickly. Everyone was quite smiley and lots of cheers for Mr. C. with his saxophone solo for SiL. 🙂 I wasn’t quite sure at the time what entailed during TPoL’s bit where Mr. M. chooses a woman and man to sing the “Lazy girl..dirty boy” bit to but I saw him keep looking at whoever it was and then crack up. (not 100% sure this is the same thing but after the final show I heard him talking to someone and said that after that bit, “the woman motioned to another man and said “but THIS is my boyfriend.” ” so…I’m going to guess that is what happened. Oops, Mr. M. don’t start any rumors now LOL. 😀 😉 ) Mr. M. was about to start SotSS when he looked out and asked “are you tired yet?” Very loud “NOOOO” from the crowd to which he then said “good, because we have 3 more hours left.” OK, back down to 3…that’s probably wise. 😉 Big smile from Mr. C. when he saw me doing a bow down to him once the song was over (I think Mark joined in too) as I had forgotten to do it in Orlando LOL, and then it was time for “our last song.” “Awws” from the crowd and a big bouncing session for us. 🙂 When the guys came down to say their goodbyes, they were all smiles, both to us and to each other. No OMD chant tonight but we still got thanked for being wonderful and then they launched into Dreaming. Secret went down even better with a lot of people singing along and before we knew it, it was Electricity time. “It’s fast…really fast!” Yes, we know, we’re ready. 😀 Not sure if it was just the fact the tour was almost over or what but Mr. C. came forward to shake/slap hands with the others at the end. 😮 I thought “wow, that’s cool! 😀 ” Well, needless to say, I was not only tired but really needed to get to the hotel to finish Orlando blog so as it turned out, we all got our group photo and then said our goodbyes as everyone was leaving to go their separate ways…until the next night of course! 😉

So..highlight of the night…hmmm…well, honestly, as simple and silly as this may sound, I’m going to say seeing Mr. C. slap/shake some fans hands as that is a rarity and was very cute and sweet to see. 🙂