Washington DC, March 6th, 2018

So I’m going to apologize right now for the lack of details and not as many pics and videos of this show. My brain was fried by the time I got to the venue (will explain in a moment) so all I wanted to do was try to come down and relax. I decided I wasn’t going to be as on top of it all for taking mental notes of things happening etc because I truly was frazzled and just wanted to let go and enjoy so…I remember some things but this won’t be the longest or most detailed blog as usual. 🙁 Sorry…you’ll understand soon enough. 😉

First gig of OMD’s NA tour and I was hoping for it to be a great day! Not only do I love getting to see first and last gigs of a tour due to they both are really special in their own way, but this show was extra special for 2 other reasons…it was my birthday and (not sure if I should be admitting this publicly but, meh, a lot of you know me so know I’m not a crazy stalker fan and those who don’t, well…trust me when I say I’m not a crazy stalker fan LOL 😉 😀 ) it was to be my 100th OMD show! 😀 That was why I decided to fly out the day before so NO chance of missing it!

So started the day off with a nice little walk to the state next door that is Washington DC (I was staying in Arlington VA) for some donuts. Birthday calories don’t count ya know and I love my donuts! 😀 Saw some cute little sites along the way and even got to watch as one of my donuts (bananas foster) got flamed! 😮 THAT’S a new one even for me and all the donuts/places I’ve tried. 😆 It was being predicted that we could have rain later in the day and turning to snow so once done eating and realligned in my hotel room, I headed off to explore Arlington Cemetary. Loved seeing the War Memorial as it’s so massive and just really touching. Even managed to see the changing of the guards at the Tomb for the Unknown Soldier (which actually made me cry surprisngly).

Thank goodness I got back to my hotel with plenty of time and am one of those that likes to get things that need to be done first BEFORE relaxing as once I had lunch made, snacks packed for the train ride next day and most things picked up and repacked, I was settling in on FB when I got a phone call. Amtrak cancelled my train to Phily! 😮 OK, not a big deal, more of an annoyance…UNTIL I spent over an hour trying to get connected to someone to reschedule. Got disconnected by automated system, then finally thru to be put on hold for 15 minutes and THEN disconnected. FB messaged them stating urgent, tried calling multiple times again only to get the “dee dee deeerp, your call can not be completed as dialed” so then posted on their FB page asking them to check messages as urgent. THEN went and logged into my account to try and modify there…”your reservation has been cancelled but can’t be modified online. Please call *insert number* “. It was a new number, not the one I’d been calling so got excited..dialed,…Error message!!! 😡 Jumped onto their “Virtual agent Julie” but she was no help as she gave me same number that just errored out. 13 calls to the number they had called me on and 2 to the other one and all I would get WHEN the main number would connect was the recording asking for reservation number, “ok one moment, we will connect you with an agent” and then disconnect again. Hence the 13 attempts as I was hoping EVENTUALLY it would work! 😡 To say I was stressed is an understatement. Finally thought “oo, Megabus!” got online to find one single bus that was super early. As in, get up at 4:30am to get there early. Messaged friends to say I’d be late to the venue and found out they too had their trains cancelled and said I should book bus so…I did.

OK, sorted right? NOPE cause found out bus too early to take metro to get to station. Friend messaged saying early train still avail, mabye book that so back up to hotel room but…well, in a nutshell, it was bus and cab booked for early pick up. I was so frazzled at this point I wasn’t even excited for the gig. 🙁 Then the metro decided to act up and not have a train going far enough for me to get to venue. OK, was told a different way to do it that involved a transer so at least had an option. Until that train just sat at the stop…I thought for sure they would take off before ever opening the door and letting me out with the way my night was going but finally doors opened and out I got! FINALLY made it to venue well over an hour after I had hoped to meet up with friends and my brain was moosh (hence me just needing to chill and melt into the show vs. be on alert to report back). MY GOODNESS! As a friend who had called me right as I was leaving finally from hotel to wish me happy Bday and I told him what happend saying birthdays aren’t supposed to go bad said “someone must have not gotten the memo”. Apparently not! 😛

The good thing about tonight (in addition to the already mentioned things LOL) was that I had friends there. Steve and Sally were coming from UK, (found out so was Maria) Kim and also my friend John. John and I met back in 2015 in Phily at a Covenant gig and stayed friends since. This was to be his first OMD show so that was exciting! 🙂 Thanks to Steve and Sally saving spots for myself and Maria, I ended up front row even after all this and arriving late. John was behind us, Kim down the rail a bit so thank goodness that all worked out. Once in and chatting with everyone, my nerves calmed down and I was excited again. 🙂

I purposely didn’t listen to the opening band GGOOLLDD as I wanted it to be a surprise. I joked that I’ve had back and forth luck when it comes to liking OMD’s openers for NA tours. First tour=liked Oh Land. Second tour=didn’t like Washington at all! Third tour=really liked Diamond Rings so…fourth tour…hmmm, odds were looking to not be good but I was hoping to beat them. As it turned out…yeah…I can’t say I disliked them as much as Washington but… 🙁 That being said, I REALLY liked the girls shoes! They light up! 😮 😀 As did her cape surprisingly so that was fun to watch. Musically…hard to explain and again, moosh brain so I will give more details in the Phily blog but just not my cup of tea personally. Maybe they will grow on me as there were a few songs that I liked when they first started out so…we’ll see. I have 12 more shows to find out LOL. 😉

The opening band had started 15 minutes late and played quite long so all I kept thinking was “come on, I need to be up at 4:30am tomorrow! 🙁 ” Not a night to run late LOL. But when the lights finally went down and the familiar bit of Art Eats Art started, I was ready! 😀 And from the looks on the guys faces, so were they! Mr. M. especially got all confident looking when he turned around to get ready to sing and the crowd cheered loudly. Good to see. 🙂 Ghost Star was the first again and like in the UK, it’s really grabbing live. We were on Mr. C.s side tonight but the stage was quite large so plenty of space for Mr. M. to move (tho making Mr. H. quite far away). When it was over and people cheered, Mr. M. greeted them and that’s when I saw all the happy smiles on the rest of the guys faces. Mr. M. said it was good to be back and everyone cheered agreement. 🙂

The setlist stayed close to what the UK had really…Isotype next, then into “old songs” with Messages. When it was time for HoM, Mr. M. looked at Mr. H. and said “well they’ve got the singing down, but they’re not good dancers yet”. Mr. H. laughed and said “well we have to fix that” and Mr. M. invited all of us to join in. It’s “compulsary” ya know. 😉 I leaned over to Steve and said “OK, now it’s SERIOUS bouncing time” (I bounce a bit to Isotype but not like HoM LOL). He initially was like “naaah” but…he ended up joining in. I think Maria and Sally were bouncing too. 🙂

Mr. H. came out to the front to sing FLaD and the crowd went crazy. Afterwards, not only did he get bows from the band but the crowd ate him up. It was just first of many Mr. H. songs as he has a lot here in the states LOL. And SINCE we are in the states, of COURSE they had to do IYL. Everyone went crazy for that and I chuckled and turned to say to John how it’s really not big overseas. Funny how different countries get different songs as we had a few that the UK didn’t get…and that’s pretty common with these guys. 😀

Sadly, the gang decided NOT to headbang any longer to Souvenir. I saw Stuart looking over to us a few times and even do a mini head bang himself to which I said to Steve “See…SEE, even HE is wanting it.” but still couldn’t get them to have a go. “that was LAST year”. Bummer, had told a lot of friends here stateside about it and it DID feel a bit strange to just stand and watch LOL. 🙁 But of course no one was ‘just watching’ for the JOA/MOO duo. Just love it and John, having never seen them live before, was amazed! I later told him that was Mr. M. toned down a bit from over the years and he was like “REALLY?!?!?! 😮 ”

VERY happy to say they kept OAtTWM in the setlist! 😀 Since I doubt it’s been done stateside in, well, a couple DECADES, I decided it would be the song I’d record (only did one last night for same reason of short blog 😉 ). It’s really great fun to watch and depending on where you stand, you have an eye shot of the various guys and their parts. We were right in front of Stuart but I also could see Mr. C. really well so watched him a lot. 🙂 But NOT happy to report that Mr. H. then stayed out to do What Have We Done. UGH, 13 nights of crying again. 😥 NO offense to Mr. H. or that song because had I not known what it was about, I’d still be loving it but since I knew they would be adding a few songs for the NA crowd, I was hoping that would be one dropped. Nope. Well…so it begins again. I made it thru the UK tour with the tears, I can make it thru this tour too. Luckily Mark is doing quite a few of the shows with me this tour so will hide behind him whenever possible.

Mr. C. got a LOT of bows from the guys AND us after his sax solo on So In Love. Gotta say, it’s so cool to see him play it! John had wondered but figured it’d be piped in so he was happily surprised to see it live and it really DOES add a special touch! He was all smiles too in his cute, bashful way. 🙂 The Punishment of Luxury went down really well to the point that Mr. M. said he was surprised at how many people were singing. The crowd really was a good one and the guys kept waving to us and thanking us. It was a sold out show and I had been told that it had one of the biggest crowds for the VIP packages so it was obvious the fans were happy to see the guys and the guys felt it. 🙂

Enola Gay came and went quickly and then the guys stood there while we all clapped to the beat. Even when Stuart stopped drumming, Mr. M. kept clapping so so did we LOL. Finally he put his hand on his heart and leaned back as everyone cheered. Mr. H. and Mr. C. shook their heads with massive grins and Stuart looked out and raised his hands all happy and “wow” like. They eventually came forward and Mr. M. introduced everyone by “Mr.” and then Mr. H. introduced Mr. M. Lots of waves and cheers, lots of thank yous and then they were off. Steve said we could try to get the OMD chant going, I said I was game but my voice isn’t too loud. Well, once the band came back and everyone waved and thanked us again, then it started. The guys just stood there soaking it up. More NA songs LOL with Dreaming and Secret, then Mr. M. thanked us one more time, said they’d not let it go so long between gigs and then said they were about to do their OLDEST song that they wrote when they were 16…’and it’s FAAAAASSST”. Electricity, one final bounce moment and then, final goodbyes.

Once the show was over, I asked John what he thought and he said “Amazing!”. Yup 🙂 As we were all kind of standing and chatting, another friend from my area who happened to come to DC for the show came up to me to say hello. Chris and I hadn’t seen each other for a few years so it was great he came up. 🙂 And as it turned out, he ended up being my hero because ya know…birthday wasn’t over so had to have one more mishap LOL. We all said goodbye and I headed to the metro station to go back to my hotel. Was told I had until about midnight but as I came down the escalator, I heard the announcement of the final train. I ran but heard the train leaving below me so asked the lady in the officer box as I was HOPING that was to the other direction. She asked where I was headed, I told her and nope, that was MY train. UGH! 🙁 She told me I had 17 minutes to get to a different, bigger station where I could catch the final train back “and it’ll take a cab about 8 or 9 minutes if you hurry.” Out the station I ran, saw a bus that looked like it might be going where I needed so asked as he was stopped. Nope so got to edge of street and was looking for a taxi frantic again when I saw a car slow down and a window open then “Lori, are you needing a ride somewhere?” CHRIS! Oh thank goodness! 😀 Bless his heart so I said yes and he pulled over. I told him about needing to get to the particular station, neither of us knew where it was so he just asked where I was staying and ended up taking me there. Phew. Truly PHEW! Got to my hotel a little earlier than if I had taken the metro LOL but I was just more happy to be there! What a day/night as it turned out. Not really what I had imagined but…alls well that ends well right?

So my highlight of the night. Well seeing as how I was so moosh brain and frazzled at the start, I will say just BEING there and up front with friends. Nothing special, not even that it was my Bday or 100th gig though that was supposed to have been my highlight. But at least I was there, healthy, up front with friends and made it back safely.