Portland-June 13th 2025

Well, I said goodbye to Seattle and jumped in the car to drive down to Portland. It was really cold as I stepped outside and the cleaning ladies were like “oooo, you’re dressed all summery, you’re going to be cold!” but I told them I was heading south so it was supposed to be warmer and I had a light jacket in the car. As it turned out, I needed it LOL. Portland wasn’t much warmer tho by the time I got there, it was nice, cool but not COLD. I went into downtown to get Voodoo Donuts and see a couple little parks before getting to my hotel to rest and watch a movie. Nice to have a night off. 😀

Hit a Rhododendum garden in the morning as I didn’t need to leave the hotel until 1:30 and couldn’t believe how cold it was! I mean we are mid June, it’s supposed to be in the 80s but instead it was 59F when I left and like 61 when I got back. I started wondering what to wear since the venue/gig was outside but in the end, I wore longer shorts and a cap sleeved shirt as I figured I had my light jacket too and I was SURE I’d be getting hot and needing the jacket off/cool top once OMD came on (wrong but I’ll get to that LOL 😉)

So because of the whole change of tour dates, in Portland it meant a venue change too. McMenamin Grand Lodge was the name and tho I had emailed twice to get info on where to park, how to get my tickets (the original venue only offered box office pick up) and the lay out of the place, nothing I was told was how it ended up being so a bit confusing once I arrived. But the on ground staff were really nice and all worked out great in the end!😀  I met Bert in line and then Kim, Jennifer and Elva (new, nice girl I met that night) came shortly after. We were the “front of the line” and had to keep telling people who arrived and stood in front of us to go behind us but in the end, we were all together along the rail.😀 A friend of Kim’s…Erin…came shortly before doors so we were able to get her with us too. Stewart and Kimberly came later but Kimberly stayed back a bit on a blanket (Kim got Stewart in the front between her and Bert and Erin and I just scooted down a little as it wasn’t mashed in yet LOL). Basically it was a big lawn and those who wanted could go up to the rail, behind were those who wanted to be further grass sitting on their blankets and then way to the one side was a small section of seats (too far and at an angle to really see much it seemed but ah well…).

It remained cold, seriously! I never once took my jacket off and my hands were starting to get cold by the time WD came out LOL. The sound was fantastic tho! Very clear to the point that I oould actually understand some of the singer and hear more musical parts which made their extended set (they got 45 minutes this time so did 2 extra songs) more enjoyable for me. It was also so pretty with the trees on each side and behind the stage. The left set of trees had big yellow and orange bulbs and I saw the trees on the right did too but it wasn’t until right before OMD came on that those were plugged in/on. This was also when Merve came out and started blowing leaves off the stage with a leaf blower! OMG, it made me laugh as I’d never seen him do that before…guessing it might have been a first..?😀😀

When the video screen popped on, everyone cheered and it was fun to see the guys coming out from behind and walk the walk (daylight was allowing us to see a lot LOL. Curfew so they came on at 7:45!). When Anthropocene was done Mr. M. said hello and “this is quite different from the Wonderball (the venue from past tours). It’s bloody cold out! Let’s warm up with some dancing” and Mr. H. said “my hands are cold.” SO WERE MINE! I almost recorded TG and too bad I didn’t as Mr. M. had a funny goof. He said he’d not be political but “there’s a man who’s not happy with anothers electric guitars.” I thought “huh?” and the guys gave him looks to where he then said “CARS. I meant cars, did I say electric guitars?” Stuart nodded and Mr. H. said “yeah, you said electric guitars”. Mr. M. then said “I really mucked that up! Am I going to mention Mr. Musk?” to which Mr. H. did the TG “no”. It was like the previous night in Seattle but with the funny goof LOL. Once over, Merve came running out to Stuart so Mr. M., looking at us and said “I’m not going to look but has Stuart broken something?” Mr. H. said “no, he’s OK” to which Mr. M. said “good because I’m not buying you another drum kit for Christmas”.😀

When it was time for HoM, Mr. M. asked “how many people have seen us before?” there were a lot of cheers and hands up so he laughed, looked at the guys and said “they all wouldn’t have fit into the Wonderball” Mr. H. laughed and said “no, they wouldn’t!”. We then proceeded to bounce around and I have to say, I think this was the bounciest crowd thus far.😀 FLaD went down really well too, lots of cheers for Mr. H. who seemed really happy. Tons of cameras up for IYL “the OTHER John Hughes movie” song LOL. Mr. M. apolozied to those in the back saying “we were told this could hold a lot of weight but the video screen isn’t very tall so you may not see it in the back.” I tried getting some video of the crowd but honestly, once the show started, daylight or not I couldn’t really see much past the first few rows behind me LOL.

The A&M trio went down really well with a lot of people yelling “we love you” or “wonderful” when it was done. And with it being daylight, you could really see Stuarts faces during the drumming and Mr. C.s massive smile once all over. We could also see the next change up as Mr. H. laughed and said “it’s light out still for this one” and Mr. M. laughed and said “yeah, usually it’s dark so we can kind of sneak out and be in front to suprise you but you’ll see it all tonight”. YUP, it was fun! Mr. C. was singing along to the little musical intralude, Mr. H. was tapping his leg and bopping a little and Stuart was totally shaking his butty and dancing to it until it was time to all turn around/come forward to do Veruschka. Gotta say, I could get used to daylight shows (even if it DID kind of feel like a matinee LOL).😀

Back to dancing for Don’t Go and then during SiL, a funny thing happened. The line “you would do just ANYTHING to still be mine” came and Mr. M. often sings it to someone. Well apparently he looked at someone, then decided “you’re too young to sing that line to, shit!” and laughed before he jumped back into the chorus. Once over, he looked at the girl and said “you caught my eye just at the moment of that line and I thought “oh shit, no I can’t sing that to her. Sorry” LOL😀  Dreaming found Mr. M. trying to get one of his picks to a little boy. Funny enough, I had seen him a couple songs in and figured I’d give him my rail spot for the encore so when Mr. M. tossed a pick to Bert and he missed it I thought “wait til encore and you can toss to him” LOL. But instead, Mr. M. laughed, grabbed another pick and walking back to Bert said “you had ONE job and that was to catch my pick” so Bert stuck his hands WAY out and caught the next one Mr. M. tossed him.😀 (to be fair, the rail was set back about 10ft from the stage and the pick is small so I probably would have missed it too.😉) .

By the time Locomotion was going, the regular stage lights were on and I got blinded a few times over the remaining part of the show but ah well LOL. Mr. M. also told us to “wave to Walt Disco, they’re over THERE” and pointed off in the direction of the seats. Everyone loved Mr. C. and Stuart during SotSS, both getting cheers and Mr. H. giving bows.😀 Mr. M. said “you all look so good, I wish you could see yourselves. You should come up here on stage.” Then it as EG and a final bounce. Again, lots of bouncing around and behind me which was great and when the guys were starting to come down, I couldn’t remember but THOUGHT Stuart sometimes tossed drumsticks out twice…now and again at the end….so I quickly motioned for the little kid to come up in front of me. As it turned out, Stuart didn’t have sticks with him when he came down but as they all walked off, he saw the boy, smiled, mouthed “awww” and pointed to him with a look like “I’ve got ya covered, I see you.” YAY!😀

Like coming out, it was really fun to watch the guys make their entire trip back out to the stage before Mr. M. stated “so different from Wonderball but WONDERFUL, thank you!”. Then it was a lot of arms swaying back and forth for LaYN. (glad that was the video taken for OMD’s FB page so I could see what they saw!😀 ) Mr. M. then said “I’ve got a new favorite way to introduce this next song” I THOUGHT he was going to say “making Paul introduce it” LOL but nope “it’s our biggest hit that no one knows. It never got released…but you’ll know it. I KNOW you will…” and yup, lots of screams and cheers for Secret. We had one final song in Electricity and I started laughing because the little guy in front of me was bouncing and sometimes we’d be in time, sometimes not which made me remember being the middle of a “bouncing sandwiche” with Mark and Laura or Mark and Andrew…loved it, great little bouncing buddy.😀❤️. AND…as promised, bless Stuart’s heart he tossed a stick to the youngin and he caught it, whoo hoo!😀

Once the guys were truly gone, the crowd started breaking up a bit. I was able to get a BIG group photo since there were a lot of us and a little chat with some (including Kenny who was the dad of the little guy. I’d not seen Kenny since 2013 so I had known he looked familiar when I saw him putting a blanket out earlier but had to ask Stewart. Once I heard the name I was like “Oh YEAH, Voodoo donuts and walking around Portland!”😀 ) After that, we waited a bit for the crowd rush to exit lanes to disperse, then it was an easy out of the nice close parking lot after goodbye hugs.

So…highlight of the night. Well, I loved the area but even more so the SOUND since I could hear not only WD better but the guys sounded great. And daylight…that was actually quite fun.😀 A free day now so heading off to Sacramento to meet up and stay with Pammy before next gig.😀