Bing Lounge Portland, CD Launch Party April 8th, 2013

Well before anything, it was a sad goodbye to Missy and Mark as I took them to the airport so they could both fly home. I’ll get to see Mark again in LA but not Missy as she’s doing San Fran and I’ll be at Coachella so….I’d forgotten the one hard thing about OMD tours…goodbyes. 😥

I didn’t know exactly what I was walking into when I headed down to the city with my friend who apparently won 2 seats to the CD launch party. We had seen it announced last Thursday and saw the competition on KINK Radio’s website but it wasn’t clear by the time we arrived just how things were going to run. Stew (DJ Stew on the forum) was there when we arrived and said he could see inside that the equipment was set up and he had seen one of the crew but nothing else.  We were quite early and LOL, I saw another guy walking around looking a bit lost while holding a single piece of paper so I asked him if he was here for OMD too. He confusedly said “no”. After a few minutes, a woman came out and after a bit of talk, she informed us that we were to come back at 11:30 as tickets would be handed out then so off we went to the local McDonalds to kill time LOL.

When we arrived back, there were a few others waiting around and we realized they too were for OMD.  It was only a few minutes when a spunky blonde woman came out and was total smiles, OMG, she was a sweetheart and elatedly started checking people off the list, then handed them their tickets. Each ticket was just a tiny little printed piece of paper that had their radio station name and logo, then a row and seat number. As soon as I looked down I saw we were row A…oh my! 😯 Sadly, Stew was row C but at that point, there weren’t too many people so I told him maybe he’d be able to move up if other seats were open. Then there was the group of 3. The tickets seemed to be given out in pairs (my friend was also down as with +1)but one woman came up and asked if her other friend could come too. The blonde was all “suuuure, yeah, come ON, join in” and gave out an extra ticket to the woman who had asked and that woman literally started jumping up and down all “omg, thank you thank you…yay!” Awww… 😀

There was the usual info before going in…your ticket has the seat number, you are allowed to take video and pictures. just no flash (yay!), there’s some refreshments etc.  When they opened the door, my friend was the closest so we ended up being the first in…and found a cute little studio like theatre. It had 5 rows of theatre like chairs on the, er, main level and then I think 4 rows on the upper level (that wasn’t too far up). We headed down to the front and I found myself and the guy to my right smack in front of Mr. M….about 3 feet from the low stage 😯  Um…hello…. 😆  As we got settled, it began to fill up so sadly Stew couldn’t come up. (not sure where everyone came from but since this was a noon performance and short, I”m guessing many just hopped over on their lunch hour as the host, after the band was done and he mentioned we could wait to say hi to the band which is custom for their shows, said something like “or if you need to get back to work, you can go too” so…) This was definitely a small gathering….kind of like the bike shop during SXSW except with seats LOL.

Well it wasn’t long before the host came up and thanked us for coming, asked how we were, gave the same info about taking pics and a few minutes later, he got a sign from the right hand side back area and he said “we’re ready? OK” and introduced Mr. M. and Mr. H.  Mark and I had contemplated about Metroland and he thought they’d do the radio version. I wasn’t sure as that meant they’d have to have both versions learned …more work but as it turned out, Mark was right. 😆 Gotta say, even though it’s the same song, seeing the, er, abbreviated version was kind of like seeing it for the first time so I was really excited and felt lucky to be there! 😀

After that, the host came out and did a short interview with the guys. They’re always so gracious that it seemed at first the host was a bit nervous but that didn’t last long (though I had to chuckle in my head when he said the last time they were in Portland was back with DM….um, no, not quite).  But the questions were fun….what was it like back in the 80s (It’s always hard to hear the “we tried to break America but America broke us” comment :cry:), how did you get back together (all expenses paid, 5 star hotel and 3 minutes of work so why not hahahaha :lol:), how’d the new album come about (cheers from the audience when Mr. M. said they wrote it because they wanted to make music, not because they HAD to) but before long, it was back to music.  I know IYL wasn’t too big in the UK and a lot of fans were watching the stream but I’m not surprised it was done as they’re here in the states and with a crowd that, well, aren’t a typical OMD crowd. What I mean by that is they didn’t go out and buy a ticket, they won them and many probably just coming on their free time so I’m guessing the guys figured to keep it tailored safely.

I knew this was going to be short, 4 songs, so didn’t want to miss too much by using my camera (half recorded, half watched the interview) but I also knew there was some concern and questions of if the feed would work for UK so I thought “OK, I’ll get the next song on tape”…until Mr. M. mentioned it was “an older song…well not that old, 2 years”. I immediately thought “OMG, HoM Part 1? :shock:” because they had done it during all those 2 man gigs back in March 2011 and I stopped the camera just as it started.  Then Mr. M. joked by asking me if I was going to bounce…hahahaha…um…well…I wasn’t sure if it was a bouncing kind of gig (though I would have liked it to be and later, a woman said to me “you SHOULD have..you should have gotten things started”… sorry ) but at that time, I turned to people behind me and said “are any of you going to bounce with me :D?” They gave me looks like “huh?” or “you crazy?” so I chickened out. 🙄 :oops:…Next time 😆 😉 (but for the record, I did bounce in my seat :wink:)  We did the clapping  in the middle though but overall, a bit subdued crowd.

They did Enola Gay and then….well it was over. As Mr. M. joked, shortest gig they’d ever played. When he left, he said “good afternoon” as it was literally like maybe 12:25pm. Sheesh, talk about time flying! But it was still awesome. To get to see them in such an intimate setting, watch them answer some questions with their usual humor, hear the radio version of Metroland…yay! 😀 So Stew met up with us and I also talked to the host and camera woman who had been literally off to our left side recording parts of it. We compared bands now to the 80s…Presets, Cut Copy etc etc. Eventually we headed up the stairs only to find that there was a line of fans waiting to greet the band.  I know the host said you could but I guess I wasn’t expecting it to be like this…there was a line and each fan was going up to say ‘hi’ and then get their picture taken with Mr. M. and Mr. H. 😯 😀 As it turned out, that was part of their routine, get up by the band, picture taken professionally and then the sweet blonde was there grabbing everyones personal cameras. Well, we all decided what the heck…why not? We each got up and when it was my turn, it was special as I hadn’t talked to them since Austin 2011. Well, I said ‘hi’ to Mr. H. at the Flashback event but that’s it….literally the one word so it was great to be able to give them proper greetings! 😀 Individual pics taken and then we were allowed to get a group photo, all 3 of us with the guys…yay!

After, we waited as Stew had a gift for the guys and as we stood, we saw the whole radio station crew come up so I talked to the sweet blonde for a minute.  She said this was such a great way to start the week and then, after the host gingerly went up to get his picture and say thanks/hello to the guys, the whole radio crew went up and a picture was snapped of them all together….sweet! 😀

So there it was…I went down not really sure what was what and if things were going to work out or not but they did and we all had a great, fun and special time.  I hope the album does well here and it’s hard to believe it’s truly and fully released now. WOW! Who would have thought? But as both Mr. M. and Mr. H. pointed out in the interview, that sound is ‘in’ again so why shouldn’t they do what they do best? And us fans have an amazing album to hold in our hands and gigs with four amazing musicians (I can say this now as I just got done listening to it in it’s entirety…..OMG, fantastic, amazing, AWESOME! 😀 :D) Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!  Goooooo EE! 😀