Los Angeles-June 20, 2025

So…sadly I wasn’t able to get a good ticket for the second SD show. Either $250 or more for closer up or $170 and up for further back so I ended up just cancelling my car spot and then watched a movie and went to bed early since I still wasn’t feeling good. A quick stop at a park near the hotel the next morning and then went back up to Laura’s house. As it was, we had a dinner set up for her, myself and friends John and Mark. I was really looking forward to it as I’d not see either of them since 2022 and 2023 respectively. We had a lovely day so could sit outside and it was just so great to catch up!😀🤗

We went to a cute little park for a walk in the morning before getting ready and heading out to The Greek Theatre. It’s an outdoor venue that holds 5,900 people (yes I Googled for that LOL) and has a small standing pit area in front of stage before multiple sets of seats. We had seats for this one so didn’t have to arrive too early. We parked and hopped on the SUPER cold shuttle bus (which unlike last time in 2022 when the buses had OMD playing, this time we just got generic 80s music LOL). Our seats weren’t horrible, nice and center and the front half of the second section but in total about 35 rows back plus pit area so…yeah, binocular seats (LITERALLY because Laura  brought her binoculars and used them.😂)

It was still nice and light out for WD so it was pretty to see the hills and trees on our left side. Just a lovely night, we got lucky!😀👍 When it was time for OMD, the crowd cheered but only a few scattered people in the “second section” as I’ll call us stood up. A lot of the first section were standing tho and I was sure it’d change with time. Once the guys actually walked on stage I jumped up and luckily the guys behind us were standing and then next to them were empty seats (not that I would have NOT stood if there were people sitting behind me tho LOL😉😂 ).  When Anthropocene was done and the crowd cheered, Mr. M. smiled and said “oh I think this is going to a fun one tonight” and Paul echoed “yeah, I think it’s going to be too.” Messages indeed got everyone dancing as Mr. M. told everyone to “put your dancing shoes on”.

I hadn’t noticed but apparently for Messages, Mr. M. was playing the wrong cord? He said something about being on D or something and laughed “I was playing like a dick”. Mr. H. laughed as did everyone else.😂 Despite being way back, Laura and I still did the “yes, Yes, YES” bit and I told Laura we’d have to be in front of Mr. H. tomorrow since Mark was going to be with us and he’s the one that STARTED the whole thing LOL.😉 Some sit downs for Kleptocracy but ah well, that allowed me to see better LOL. NO ONE sat for HoM tho “a song about the end of the world…COME ON!” I was happy to see everyone up but not a ton of bouncing tho to everyone’s defense, it was a bit of a tight situation so even I had to be careful bouncing LOL.

When it was over and time for Mr. H., Mr. M. smiled, waved to Mr. H. and said “and now…the Synthesizer Professional is going to come down and sing for you.” Mr. H. laughed saying “here I come” and then when he introduced FLaD, OMG the cheers and the girls near us squealed! 😂 Same with the ending of the song, there was a lot of love for Mr. H. back in our small section. TONS of singing along with IYL and massive cheers when Mr. M. hit that intense last note too. Once done, the guys seemed really happy with the crowd.

I should mention that being a bigger venue meant there was a jumbotron and I was enjoying watching it as I could see Mr. H. and Mr. C.’s keyboard playing (especially Mr. H. as they had a cool side view they would use a lot. Mr. C. would only show side occasionally which was a shame). The guys behind me got excited when the A&M trio started and continued their excitement for JoA/MoO. As mentioned in the San Diego blog, it was cool to be back a bit and see the hugeness of the stage, lights and such of those 2 songs and it was there again tonight in full force. 😀👍 There was a guy off to my right and down a few rows who was dancing kind of like a mix between a windmill and a regular dance…it was great!😀👍 Once done, Mr. M. thanked everyone for keeping their tickets, said one of the reasons for delay was his titanium knee and then tapping it laughed saying “it’s now good for another 20 years!”.

Laura and I even sat down for Veruschka to give people behind us a break but once it was over, bam, right back up again LOL. As did pretty much everyone which was great.😀 Tons of singing again for SiL and when it was over, Mr. M. laughed and said “from the cheers, you’d think we were a boy band” to which Mr. H. laughed and said “well we ARE a boy band”. The enthusiasm continued for Pandora’s Box and when done, Mr. M. looked down at the setlist and said ‘there’s 3 more hours of this”. OK!😀😀👍Dreaming was great (as was the singing which we could hear well…a definite benefit of being “back IN the crowd”😉) and when done, Mr. M. joked and said “I’m just bouncing around, I had my surgery but the surgery put on 12 pounds so I need to dance it off.” I can relate to that only mine’s not surgery but middle aged woman time.🙄🙄😠😞 Locomotion meant it was our turn to cheer in the “everyone in the back” prompt LOL but that’s OK.😀👍

We were winding down to the end when SotSS came and Mr. M. joked and changed the lyrics to say “Andy McCluskey’s on TV” (because hey, he WAS. They were ALL TV stars last night LOL😉😂). I also thought “ooo, I’m going to get Mr. C.s keyboard solo on video by recording the jumbotron”…which I did but sadly they only did a couple seconds from the side and the rest they did front which I see anyways.🙄😞  It finished with enormous cheers for EG! The guys behind me were like “OMG, their biggest hit, yes!” and everyone was bopping around. When it was done, the guys took their time coming down, waving, saying goodbye etc and once off the stage, no OMD chant but TONS of phones up with their flashlights on. To the point that when the guys came back on stage, Mr. M. said “wow, you look fantastic! You look as great as you sound, thank you.”

It was fun to see so many hands in the air for LaYN since we were further back and then yet more screams and cheers when Secret got announced (literally the girl next to Laura let one out that was SO long it was impressive.😯😂😂). Mr. M. almost ended it a bit early and then realized, laughed, looked at Mr. H. and said “sorry about that.” The guy 2 from my right leaned over to the girl on my right and said “I like it when they mess up, it’s REAL.” I agree.😀👍❤️  Like San Diego, I figured being further I’d record a bouncing song so I grabbed Electricity. Then, what hasn’t happened yet at any of the shows I’d been to (this was gig #10 for me) was the OMD chant…while the guys were on stage for final goodbyes. Great that they could hear AND see it!😀👍 They listened for a short bit, then did their final goodbyes and joked about how they’d see us again…tomorrow. YUP, you will.😀

Back down a small hill for the shuttle bus’s SUPER long line and we noticed Uber service people waving ‘available’ signs and thought we’d make a note incase we wanted to take one tomorrow (I have a parking spot reserved that was SUPPOSED to have been a mile walk away with early arrival since we wanted to get there early for pit but as it turns out, it’s 1.6 miles away!) until we heard the guy say “$75 minimum”. 😯😯 WHAT?! Um…no, I guess we’ll be walking LOL. The shuttle line went fast and it wasn’t a bad drive home either which was good since it was late.

So, highlight of the night…gotta say the jumbotron because it was cool to see Mr. C. and Mr. H.s hands playing and we even got the occasional side view of Stuart playing his multiple drums. Things you don’t get at a small venue and also closer up. Tomorrow is pit tho, LONG waiting time but it’ll be Mark and Laura with me and we can kill it with chatter so all good. 😀😂