Boston-July 15th

Oh my, where to begin?  This gig and the time before and after it was so much fun!  I was a bit worried as my flight wasn’t letting me have much time to get ready for sound check (hadn’t expected 3:30 start times :shock:) but I made it and found not just Mark and Andrew again but also Laura (Summermuse on the forum) there waiting. It was quite the small crowd so that made for a nice, intimate experience, especially since the Boston venue was really small! (I remember trying to guesstimate back in 2011 but I think it’s a little bigger than I had thought that time due to having not been up in the balcony back then. I’d say maybe 750 now….)

Anyways, we were let in and Mr. H.#2 and Mr. C. were on stage but Mr. H. was kind of just wandering around saying hi so we all got an early meet/greet with him LOL. I went over to chat with Maria for a bit (DR’s manager) and also found out the name of ‘the new guy’…Geordie.   Mr. M. was just arriving when myself and a couple friends decided to check out the balcony.  Pat had come in for this gig also and as I was just getting settled, I saw Mr. M. pull his phone out and start playing a song, then started singing…to Firegun! 😯 I tried to get some video but being up, the lighting wasn’t good for my current setting so Mr. M.s a dark, black figure but Pat was ecstatic, understandably so. 😀  Snagged a vid on a better setting, then came down to join Laura and Mark while the crew was trying to figure a way to get some of the speakers higher as it was set up a way that didn’t sound right for Mr. M.  Once done, they did a few other songs…one being Metroland (and thus started another dance move…). Mr. M. started goofing around and doing funny little prances or ‘strike a pose’ moves but I had given my camera to Mark to hold as I had decided to just enjoy the rest of the sound check so he handed it to me and bless Mr. M.s heart, I kind of motioned I’d missed it and if he’d do it again and he did…along with a pirouette and then later, a choo choo train motion. We were all cracking up and I turned to Mark part way through and said “we should do that tonight.” He laughed but then I thought and said “no really, we SHOULD!” So he told Laura, and I think it was her who joked and started doing the choo choo where Mark and I got in line too and I was like “YEAH!” so by the time Andrew came down, we told him we were going to mimic Mr. M. and he laughed but said he was game. 😀

Well, it was a very small meet and greet which was nice and then off to drop stuff off at Marks hotel, then dinner which Pat joined us on. We started honing in on what we were going to do and when.  Mark thought to wait til Mr. M. was looking to do the arm sweep and sway move before he started singing, I said we needed to make a very big, marked turn and do the choo choo in the middle when the song changes back to the, er, well for a lack of a better word, train tempo and suggested we do the pirouette at the end of the first verse.  Pat was sitting there shaking his head all “OMG, you guys are nuts! But I’m gonna record this! I’ll go up in the balcony and my camera is going to be on you the whole time.” 😆

When the doors were to open, we planned on bee-lining it to the area near Mr. M. so that it’d be easier for him to see our moves but unfortunately, like Toronto and Philly, they started letting regular ticket holders in first and a couple got there before we could so we moved to in front of Mr. H. (which, as he sweetly told us after the gig, gave him a show himself. “I was loving the dance moves!” 😆 :D)  We did the sunglasses thing for DR again, Laura borrowing some from another friend as she had accidentally left them in Marks room.  (I had to take them off for a video though, lights were less at this gig).

Once DR were done and I had my bathroom break, we went over the ‘moves’ and timing again as we all joked something would go wrong. I told Mark “you want to make the call for the first one of when he looks at us?” but Mark said “no, you.” so I told him “OMG, the pressure!” (and was only half joking LOL).  Just before, we saw Pat come down the stairs and get in pose and when the song began, out came the guys…and then Mr. M., turning towards Mr. H.#2 as he always does. I was ready to go “NOW!” when he turned around but he ended up going off to the other side. 😯 so we waited til he came by us and then we did our first move but it seemed he didn’t see (it’s hard to time these things…) so I said “let’s wait til he looks again” and when he did, it was another “now!” and off we went again.  This time it seemed he saw as he was smiling when we got done. 😆  Our pirouettes, though done twice I think got lost but Mr. H. was cracking up during our locomotion choo choo, Mark saying he gave us a thumbs up so, OK, didn’t go quite as planned but still great fun and a lot of laughs! 😆 😀

After Messages, Mr. M. started to say “So…as I was getting off the bus..” but TG started so he had to stop. When the song was over, someone yelled “what about the bus?” and Mr. M. joked “ah well, yeah, never mind…” and then introduced Dresden to a great response.  It was really an awesome crowd! Maybe not many more than Philly but definately louder and more ready to let loose. 😀  For HoM, Mr. M. asked who had been to see them 2 years ago. “this was a NEW song then…now it’s old” but we didn’t care, we were all bouncing up and down and when it was over, lots of cheers, much to the guys delight. He also finished his bus store “I heard a woman say to her friend ‘I’m gonna be the oldest one here’ but have you looked at some of the people here? And if you could see what the ages are on our passports…” Aww… 😀

FLaD was next and OMG, the crowd just screamed for Mr. H. and when he came over to our side, he looked down and laughed at me, then bent down and rubbed my head. 😯 😆 😀  When it was over, the crowd really let out and Mr. M. kept pointing to him and did the repeated bow, all while Mr. H. not only thanked us and clapped back but laughed like “wow, thank you.”  During IYL, someone handed Mr. M. a copy of the Pretty in Pink soundtrack so he turned it over to see the track listing and nodded before handing it back.  Before Night Cafe, Mr. M. said “so I had a thought today and I’ve decided to share it with all of you…” and Mr. H. joked “wake me up when you’re done”. 😆  Mr. M. continued to say he’d visited the museum of fine arts and found it was $25 to get in. He said his working class parents wouldn’t have been able to afford that and he realized in order to have art more available, taxes may need to go up but the GOP wouldn’t like that. He continued to say they seem to be able to keep those privileges for the privilaged and joked that you’d probably not want working class kids to be educated and inspired by art.  Various shouts, cheers and comments, then he grinned and said “I’ll get off my soap box now” but ended by saying he saw one of Edward Hoppers paintings there too and how this song was inspired by his work.

So, the A&M trio….Souvenir was like FLaD, massive cheers for Mr.H. when it was done, then for JoA, the four of us threw our hands in the air while we were waiting for Mr. H.#2s drum cue to clap, Mr. M. saw, and, pointing to us but speaking to the crowd he said “like they said” and then put his hands up as everyone else did too. 😆  And after MoO, well, let’s just say the cheering had been  great up to that point but it was even better then. The guys just stood there smiling and Mr. M. laughed as he looked out. I turned around and despite the venue being quite small, it seemed like an arena was cheering because it was just a mass of hands and cheers and faces/eyes to the band.  YAY! 😀

A guy had yelled out Julia’s Song earlier so Mr. M. said sorry, not doing that but then dedicated Our System to him instead.  Andrew has now joined the list of people who feel it’s the best live song from the album, just amazing!  I found myself watching Mr. H. and Mr. C. a lot tonight as the keys parts just seemed to be so powerful and soaring, I wanted to watch them play them. 😀

So back to dancing and bouncing and SMS found Mr. H.#2 being Jesus again (I’m still waiting for Mr. C. to get his turn) and part way through, the husband of the couple center stage stood there with his head up just waiting so Mr. M. put his hand on his head and I swear, it was like those moments where you see “healers” all “I save you, come to me brother” because the guy stood there head raised and that kind of look on his face like “yes, YES”, it was hilarious! 😆  Locomotion was more fun with Mr. M. and Mr. H. coordinating their own moves and Mr. M. went over and sang to the far sides of the venue.  This venue had some pretty bad viewed areas so he would often go and look over at the far side which was like going over the heads of the crew and also over some speakers on the other side…not the most convenient of spots to see the show but he tried to make sure they all felt involved and noticed. 😀  (we also pulled out our choo choo locomotion move again LOL)  When it was time for EG, everyone let out a huge  cheer and while Mr. M. was over by us bopping around with Old Faithful, Mark would duck to the timing of when Mr. M. would swing Old Faithful’s neck, Mr. M. smiling while we all laughed. 😆  When it was over, the OMD…OMD chant started before Mr. H. could even start to say his goodbyes. 😯 and it continued until Mr. M. started the intros and though it stopped briefly, it got going again and continued til they returned.

The guys thanked us and all seemed really pleased with the gig and Mr. M. introduced Secret by  joking “if you weren’t here 2 years ago, you wouldn’t have heard this song…and if you WERE here, you still wouldn’t have heard this song.” 😆  But as soon as it took off, I heard a bunch of screams and a lot of heads bopping.  Electricity came and went really quickly, one final bounce as a foursome which had been quite funny because us girls were in the middle so the guys were literally lifting us up but would sometimes get off time so we’d get bopped around. 😆  After, we went over to see Johnny and Maria as Laura wanted to get a CD and have her set list signed (ended up getting the CD signed instead. We were both lucky as I decided to buy the final vinyl of said CD….already had it on CD but have become a big fan of vinyl again…and as it turned out, we got all 4 guys to sign them! Oh, and a picture with Karl so quite a successful night. :D)

Once outside, we were waiting as this was Laura’s only  gig so she was hoping to say goodbye to the guys but as Mr. M. came out, so did Ryan, their old manager. A different friend noticed him and called out so as soon as I saw him, i was like “OMG, Ryan!” and he hugged me too. It was so awesome to catch up for a few minutes as we loved him being the manager…great guy…such a lovely surprise! 😀  A few words with Mr. H. (when he mentioned our moves) and then I had to head out to try and catch my train (don’t ask….another crazy attempt to get to my hotel before dawn) but what a great night!!

So…highlight of my night. Sheesh, hard to pick just one really. I loved being able to do Platinum, our new moves in Metroland and Locomotion were a blast, DR time was great,  seeing Ryan was awesome, …take a pick really.  But I’ll add one…there was a girl in the front row who I noticed quite early on who was just one big smile! I mean mouth wide open, laughing and bopping along…she really looked like she was having the time of her life. Well, as it turned out, she got the special treatment during KtM and it just made me smile from ear to ear because she was literally in heaven. She kept having this “OMG, 😀 😀 :D”  “OMG, did you just see that? 😯 😀 😀 :D” reaction, turning to her friend who was all “wow!” and she stayed that way for the rest of the song, then back to her already massive smile. It’s things like that that just make these gigs so special! The way the band has touched fans….So, yeah, I can’t really pick just one…it was too good a night! 😉