Charlotte-August 31st, 2019

Well, OMD are on an American tour with B-52s and Berlin but not only am I not a fan of B52s, not much of a fan of Berlin either so originally didn’t think I’d see them at all this time around (no Chicago date even so…) BUT, it got announced that they were going to have 4 shows of their own so in the end, I booked for 3 of them. And my friend Maria was going to come from the UK to join me. 🙂 I could have flown LOL, but that would have meant I’d have missed out an a MASSIVE road trip (over 1000 but I only did 811 in a day, I started after work and drove a bit before sleeping and then getting up to do the rest) and a lovely 2 day visit with a friend of mine who lives on the coast of North Carolina. JUST what I needed…some down time in a lovely area with a great friend before starting a tour trip LOL. Gotta say tho I am NOT a fan of the heat, I loved the beauty. He and his parents live in a gated community only a few miles from the ocean so we not only got to see nature but also hit Mrytle Beach one day for shopping and adventure (as in big Ferris Wheel adventure LOL).

Once done with all that, it was off to Charlotte (just under 4 hours away) to meet up with Maria for gig #1. She actually beat me to the hotel by a tiny bit but it was great to see her and after a bit of catching up, it was get ready and head to venue. Which actually wasn’t the easiest to find LOL. Thank goodness for a queue to give us a clue where we were going. 😀 I knew I had another friend Christine coming (we met in January at the Vegas OMD gig but funny enough, it was our mutual love of Covenant that helped us meet. Long story). Another girl that Maria was friends with was going to meet us too, Marilyn, and actually join us for the rest of the road trip and I saw a few other familiar faces once fully in line. AND, once in the venue, it as a large crowd of familiars. 😀 Elizabeth was there, Monica and Co, and also met Marilyn and her friend Mally.

It took me a few minutes to figure out there was no opening band as once I got settled into front row with many of the others, I saw the stage was strictly set up for OMD. Oooo, good, early start! Tho actually, it ended up that they came on at 8:30 vs. 8 like the ticket said but…ah well, still slightly earlier (though funny enough, I had mentioned to Maria in line that I was a bit excited to see 3 opening bands I’d never heard of before because I knew OMD didn’t have their OWN opener traveling with them for this week so…ah well LOL 😉 )

Merve came out to start taping the set lists up and many took pics but I like to be surprised (tho wasn’t expecting to really be TRULY surprised since this was going to be a Greatest Hits/40th Anniversary tour LOL). When the lights finally came down, the crowd got really excited and loud. Great to get to see them here! 😀 The start was same as last tour in that we got some of Art Eats Art and La Mitralleuse as the band members came out, then they launched into Isotype. It was a bit cramped in the front to start so had to really kind of bounce with arms tucked in but I managed LOL. 😉 The crowd didn’t seem to care that the first song wasn’t a “big hit” because there were still clapping along and cheers at the end but of course when Messages started, that got a better response. Maria, Marilyn and I started doing the “do da do da do da dooooo” bit and even got good with the high key change bit. I jokingly said “damn, we’re good.” 😀 I missed having Mark with me to add to the “yes, Yes, YES” come back to Tesla Girls but Monica and the gang did it with me…for Mark..until the end….where I ended up on my own. 😮 🙁 I tured to them when I was done all “hey, I thought we were doing this for Mark, what happened?” 😀 Someone yelled out that they loved Mr. H. and Mr. M. said “Paul, someone loves you over there” pointing to the left back of me followed by “and he stole your (fill in blank as I THINK it was Roxy Music but can’t remember) shirt.” Mr. H. laughed, waved and thanked them, then said “I was wondering where that went.” 😀

Once over, Mr. M. told us we had to start dancing because the bass was down and of course HoM 1 came on and I was laughing with Monica she had her hand on my shoulder to help her bounce better. 😀 Can’t stand still for that song! Well, after that I DID get a bit of a surprise as they took off with Pandora’s Box. Don’t get to hear that song in the states too often so that was lovely. 😀

When done, Mr. M. turned to Mr. H. and asked if he wanted to come down. Mr. H. laughed and said yes, then Mr. M. asked if he had the pad lock for the keyboards for him to play. 😀 Lots of cheers when Mr. H. did Forever Live and Die and even more once done. So much so that Mr. M. came back down to the front, waited for the cheers to die down, then said “what, you love HIS song more than mine? Well then, I’m just going to do an even BIGGER hit…and it’s from a movie…” It’s not too big in the UK but yeah…here in the states it’s HUGE so the crowd goes mental. 😀

As if getting to hear Pandora’s Box wasn’t nice enough, Mr. M. then introduced the next song by saying “we don’t do this one too often in America…” I immediately thought “Oooo….are they going to do Telegraph? or Genetic Engineering maybe??? 😀 😀 😀 ” But nope, because he followed that with “you get FOUR songs from Architecture and Morality” and they started into She’s Leaving. OK, not as good as the other 2 I had thought of but still sweet. 🙂

I confirmed with Maria that we weren’t going to be head banging to Souvenir tonight and she confirmed LOL. But Mr. M. went behind Stuart at one point and started giving him a sort of karate chop massage on his shoulders mid song LOL. 😀 The stage also had a really cool kaliedescope like pattern swirling around the floor which was pretty. 🙂 I TRIED to record JoA and MoA but sadly, near the end of the song when I was zoomed into Stuart to get some of his drumming, my camera just literally jammed. 🙁 I later told Maria “Stuart broke my camera” LOL (got it going again but literally had to take battery out and in again. Sad) Well, like after FLaD and IYL, the crowd went crazy after that duo song section got done. This was actually quite the enthusiastic crowd so I was really happy for the guys since they only had 4 solo shows. 😀

Gotta say, I missed not having OAtTWD following the A&M segment but an oldie came back into the setlist…TLaC. 😮 Heck, been quite a long time since that was done LOL. Of course Mr. M. asked us all to put 1 finger in the air and follow his lead of swaying back and forth…and we all did. 🙂 It was cute because during the middle part where there’s er, tinkling of keys for a lack of better word LOL, Mr. M. went over to Mr. C.s keyboard and mimicked a few notes. 😀 We also all laughed when Mr. M. mimicked an old man with a bad back in WotMW. He had started by saying that in the past few years, the crowd demographic has been going down at their shows. 😮 Then he asked if anyone in the crowd was over 50 and still thinking they were in their 20s and dedicated the song to them…then started walking like he had a bad back. And in the end, he went down on his knees and then flopped over on his back to lay there for a minute. Once done, he jumped up and said “that’s the only rest I’m going to get “:D

We were back to the fast songs with Mr. C. getting a large cheer as he pulled out the sax on SiL and more cheering at the end when Mr. M. pointed him out as “Martin the sax God.”. 😀 I believe that was also the song I saw Stuart laugingly singing to someone off to the side and I looked to see the sound guy was also laughing and singing back to Stuart. Too funny. 😀 But hey, first Top 40 hit here in the states so…anyone could recognize and sing along. 😉 Lots of “hey Hey HEY”s for TPoL which I truly love live, so fun! 😀 And again, since in America and doing Greatest Hits, Dreaming was next where I had a funny little moment with Mr. M. (caught on video since I was recording LOL). SotSS was next and before we knew it, it was the first prep of the show ending by Mr. M. thanking everyone before they all launched into Enola Gay. Bounce time again for sure LOL. When they guys all came out to the front, they all had massive smiles on their faces. Mr. H. thanked everyone for being such a lovely crowd, then Mr. M. introduced each member with Mr. H. introducing him. Tons of cheers and claps and as we waited for them to come out, the crowd almost immediately started chanitng “1 more song” to which funny enough, a girl behind me chanted “3 more songs” cause the encore was indeed 3 more songs. 😀

Not used to Locomotion being in the encore…usually it’s where WotMW is or so but that’s what they came back out to and of course each section of the crowd responded accordingly when we got pointed to LOL. Mr. M. then said “someone yelled for this one a couple songs into the set…here it is” and we got Mr. H. singing Secret. Anyone who has been to an OMD show in the past 10 years knows what comes next so hearing “it’s the oldest and fastest song” really doesn’t tell us anything we don’t already know LOL. But one final chance to bounce. 😀 More waves and thank yous and a promise to come back soon, then the band was gone.

After of course we all congregated together to go on about how much fun it was, how hot we were, who was doing what next etc. Eventually we got moved out to the outside where we realized it was still quite warm, tho eventually it didn’t feel so hot once our bodies in general cooled down.

So…highlight of the night. Well, since it’s now 3 days later (travel and a day with my sis postponed this blog), I’m having to think about this LOL. It WAS a funny Mr. M. moment during Dreaming, plus we all waited around and got to say hello to the guys and Merve so…I think I’ll say those bits for this one. 🙂