El Cajon (San Diego area) May 25th 2022

Well it was a quick 4 hours of sleep before I had to get up and get on the road. My plan was to drive down to Anaheim, stop at Laura’s house to change and visit a bit, then meet my friend Ada for a quick dinner (not an OMD friend but a friend I made following The Faint 5 years back 😀 ) before driving down further to the venue for the show. Google maps showed short of 7 hours to Laura’s but I wanted to add some time incase of traffic issues since, going that far, you just never know what may happen. But as it turned out, there were no issues so I got to Laura’s nice and early. 😀 I was able to get ready and still hang with her a bit before going to meet Ada and where I thought she and I would only have an hour to eat and catch up, we had a bonus 20 minutes AND, I made it to the venue before start of show. 😀

So this was the first of 2 seated venues and I originally thought I’d be further back. Row 5 on Mr. C.s side but I thought there’d be a bigger space between the stage and row 1 plus I thought I was going to be off on the side more. I was happily surprised to see I really wasn’t too far away nor to the side AND, as it turned out, Jennifer and Bert were 1 row in front and 2 seats over so I wasn’t all alone like I thought I was going to be either.  😀  Double bonus LOL. Kim had splurged and bought a front row resale ticket so she and a friend were almost center stage.

When ItVB came out, we were all surprised to see a LIVE DRUMMER! :O What?! It for sure added some power and volume LOL and kind of filled out their sound so I liked it. (and Laura said all the times she’d seen them live prior to the OMD tour they had had a drummer so…wonder where he had been for the past 5.5 weeks LOL). As mentioned in other blogs, I had hoped to get my fav song by them Neverminders recorded. Jennifer had teased in Oakland that she should message them to ask them to play it before the end of the tour. Well, they made an announcement they had 2 songs left and then started Peaches. I immediately messaged Jennifer all “holy shit did you message them?” because NORMALLY Peaches is last so if there was going to be another song…and yup, they played it! 😀 Video isn’t as good as the others as I had to bop in the seat a bit and fist pump the air but a very happy camper they did it. (And Jennifer didn’t give me a solid answer to if she asked them or not LOL)

It was a quick but EASY run to the ladies room this time since I had a seat to go back to LOL, and then waiting for OMD. Funny enough, the 4 seats next to Jennifer and Bert were still empty when OMD was about to start so my hope was to hop on over a row and join them LOL. Then a woman started walking down the row towards them. She stopped, looked at her ticket….and sat ONE SEAT OFF from Jennifer. YES! 😀 Not surprising, when the lights went down and the band came out, despite lots of cheers, the crowd stayed seated and it remained like that thru Stanlow. Jennifer motioned for me to come over but with no one standing and guards right near, I was afraid they’d say get back to your seat (tho if the seat is empty once show starts, to ME, that’s fair game unless the ticket owner arrives later but…)

When Stanlow finished and the crowd quieted down, Mr. M. said “just because this is a seated venue doesn’t mean you have to STAY seated. Come on…” so I immediately jumped up, Jennifer and Bert followed, and shortly after many others did too and soon most of the floor was up. 😀 That allowed me to make my move 1 row up and, well, there ya have it…4th row with alums LOL.  Of course Messages got people to STAY up since it’s a more familiar song and also requires dancing.

It was funny to watch the front row people because, unlike the GA shows that had a barrier set at least 6ft back from the stage, these front rowers were nice and close to the stage. There were 2 20 something y/o girls that kept bopping all about and pretty much all the front row came up close which I’m sure was really nice for them. 🙂 Too far away to get my fun with Mr. H. during TG but Jennifer and Bert still helped me out with the volume all the same LOL. And then it was HoM bouncing. As Mr. M. called for everyone to “dance like me” he then said “if you have the room, you can windmill. Or you can just jump up and down”. Yup, that’s what I did LOL. 😉

The 20 something girls got all giddy excited when Mr. H. came down to do FLaD and when it was over, the crowd gave him a really good cheer. 🙂 Things continued with the 3 A&M songs going down well and Stuart got a karate chop massage from Mr. M. mid song Souvenir LOL.  Something else I noticed that I’m guessing has probably happened before but since up to now I was more on Mr. H.s side, I hadn’t seen it but tonight I did…Mr. C. clapping with us all at the start of JoA until he had to start playing the keys. It was so cute! 😀

Some people chose to sit during the deep cuts but Jennifer, Bert and I stayed up.  And once Don’t Go started, everyone was up bopping around again which was good to see.  When it was over Mr. M. looked out at us cheering and said “you’re making an awful lot of noise” and grinned at us. 🙂  As usual Mr. C. got a great response during and after SiL. Everyone really loves that it’s a real saxophone being played!  There were mics on the sides of the stage…not sure for what…but during the early part of Locomotion, Mr. M. went over to one and made a noise that I can only imagine was maybe supposed to be a train sound? LOL.  During TPoL, Mr. M. picked a random couple to be the lazy and dirty couple LOL and then after they all laughed, the guy stuck his fist out so he and Mr. M. fist bumped. 🙂

Stuart got lots of cheers and many bows from us and the band after SotSS and then it was time for EG. Amazing how fast the shows can go LOL. I have to say, tho I obviously prefer being front row against the barrier at GA shows, there’s something to be said about being in a seat as there’s slightly more room to bounce/dance and when there’s no one next to you on one of your sides…even BETTER! I was able to bounce and bop and then it was time for the band to come down and say their goodbyes. I hadn’t noticed until Mr. M. said something but when introducing the band, Mr. M. introduced Mr. H. by saying “with shiny new glasses and on keys, Mr. Paul Humphreys”. Awwww 😀

Jennifer and I tried to get an OMD chant going but sadly it didn’t really take off. But no worries, the guys seemed happy when they came back anyways and lots of singing along to IYL. 🙂 Secret was familiar to everyone too and then our final chance to go crazy during Electricity. I saw quite a few people bouncing around and when it was over, tho I think the Oakland crowd was louder, this one still gave it up well to the band. Final waves and promises to be back and then the guys were gone.  Kim came and found us so we got a post gig picture, then security was shooing us out so we went outside. I was about to leave after saying goodbye to everyone as I had a 2 hour drive back to Laura’s house and I was tired but then a friend from the past came up to me…Chris. We met at a Chicago gig way back and would usually run into each other at some point on each tour with the last one being in DC where he saved the day by giving me a ride to my hotel after the subway finished earlier than reported to. We compared notes on some of the gigs that we unknowingly had both been to plus some we did separately. Nice surprise. 🙂

So…highlight of the night. Well, I’m going to say ending up in 4th row with Jennifer and Bert so that I wasn’t too far away nor alone AND had lots of dancing room since the girl who came in last minute kept coming and going so not always there LOL.  All a pleasant surprise and made the gig more enjoyable. 😀  It’s one final show in LA and this one will be with Laura waaaaaay back…as in like 30 rows. 🙁 Pit tics never popped up despite me getting online right when tics went on sale so…ah well, we’ll manage and it’ll be fun to do it all together. 🙂