Oakland-May 24th 2022

Sunny California…final 3 gigs for EVERYONE lol. It was a long flight for me to get over BUT, unlike the horrid flight home from Boston 3 weeks prior, this one wasn’t as bad so no complaints. 😉 I met Kim for dinner at a California staple LOL…In & Out Burger. YES fast food but that’s what we needed as I wanted something with outdoor seating and easy peasy ordering since we didn’t have a lot of time. I was driving up part way to stay in a hotel so that I’d not have quite as far a drive the next day so…it worked. Plus it was the visit that mattered lol 😀

I was greeted Tuesday morning to a lovely sunrise outside my hotel room which was great! Not too many issues coming into San Francisco traffic wise (YAY) and I was able to check into my hotel early which was great as I had a Build a Bear to visit (surprise eh? 😉 ) Sadly, this store USED to have an exclusive San Fran bear but not anymore. That being said, there was a “beach bunny” that only certain states carried (my state of Illinois isn’t near an ocean so we didn’t have it) so was happy to get one along with a San Francisco exclusive outfit…all good. 😀

Oakland is across the bay from San Francisco and the traffic leading to the bridge was a bit of a mess LOL but I still made it to the venue with plenty of time, especially because surprisingly, there was only Elizabeth in line so far. :O Hugs as we hadn’t seen each other since 2018 and then Kim came out from her car. Funny enough, she was parked RIGHT across the street from the venue. 😀 It was a seamless entry and we met up with Bert and Jenniffer also which meant it was like old times with all of us lined up front row on Mr. H.s side. YAY 😀

ItVB came on and was greated nicely and thru out the show, they got a lot of shouts of “you guys rock” or “we love you” etc. The CA Bay crwod was digging this band. 😀 Sadly tho, on their last song Peaches, the keyboard/computer went out so they had to kind of jump to the end where they’re singing accoustic anyways. Poor things, they have had a bit of a run of off and on technical issues this tour. 🙁 But all was handled professionally and it was the end of the set anyways so…better than their issues in Minneapolis!

It wasn’t long before OMD came out and even tho it had only been just over 2 weeks since my last show in Kansas City, it felt longer than that LOL. I won’t say starting all over but it DID feel like returning after a longer break to see an old friend…if that makes sense. The sound was LOUD and Jennifer and I looked at each other like “WO!” Lovely to see and hear Stanlow and the crowd seemed to love it too. 🙂 Of course the bouncing and dancing commensed after for Isotype and Messages LOL.

Since this was the only GA gig of the 3 CA shows and also the only one I’d be up front for (LA has a “pit” area but despite getting online RIGHT when tickets went on sale, I wasn’t able to get them so Laura and I are like 30 rows back 🙁 ) I was looking forward to having one final run of fun with Mr. H. during TG but a curve ball was thrown in the form of a mask mandate. 🙁 Mind you, I am a firm believer of following the rules and apparently The Bay area Covid numbers are quite bad right now thus them issuing it (I saw signs in a couple other places that I had gone into earlier in the day so knew it wasn’t just the venue’s preference) but I was bummed it was going to make ‘communicating’ with the band extremely difficult since this was my last chance. 🙁 So despite many taking their masks off for OMD, I I kept mine on. I get ticked when I see people not masking when required so I was not going to be one myself! Rules are rules in my opinion so…instead I had to get creative LOL. 😉 Because we were positioned well, he still saw me and I was surprised to hear some people next to Elizabeth joining in too! :O Got the final back and forth with him and since I couldn’t laugh and smile and such with my mask hiding it, I gave him 2 thumbs up instead. 😀

Once over, Mr. M. made a joke that “I can’t believe we haven’t gotten a call from Elon Musk yet”. Mr. H laughed and said “yeah, maybe soon. ” lol. History of Modern found a lot of people bouncing and where I thought I’d be huffing and puffing after due to having a hospital grade N95 (like literally the kind worn at my hospital when entering Covid patient rooms), I was OK and bounced like normal. Guess all the home workouts I do paid off with my endurance LOL! 😀 When it was time for Mr. H. to come down for FLaD, Mr. M. jokingly introduced him as the life of the party and waved him down. OMG, this was another night that the crowd really just loved FLaD and seeing Mr. H. come down to perform! When it was over and they just kept cheering and cheering, Mr. M. kept pointing to Mr. H. and also did a little bow and Mr. H. was smiling from chin to chin and really happily surprised. He thanked everyone multiple times and waved before coming back to his keyboard. Mr. M. said “they LOVE you”. 😀

It was no surprise that the 3 A&M songs went down well. Each one with a bigger and bigger chear at the start and when over, it was Mr. M.s turn to stand and soak up the massive cheering and be really happy. He joked saying “if I keep practicing, maybe I’ll finally get it right.” Looks right to us! 😀 When we got the “deep cuts”, I noticed something I’ve NEVER seen before… Mr. C. was reflected in Stuart’s drum! At first I thought I was seeing the back of Stuart but then I realized no, Mr. C.! :O I thought “oh I HAVE to try and get pictures of this! ” But it meant having to grab them in a bit of an awkward and unusual way because the view was situated between Mr. M.s legs LOL. NO, I didn’t do anything inappropriate! Most of you know me well enough to know I’d never do that! But I DID manage to snag a couple which I’ll post one in here. So cool! 😀

Don’t Go found the crowd to sing a lot and honestly, the whole band was loving the energy and cheers. Mr. M. kept thanking us all, telling us “you look good” and we got a lot of his fists out to the air and “YES!” yells so…yeah, CA loves OMD. 😀 It was then Mr. C.s turn to get a massive and long crowd cheering reaction after SiL and his saxophone playing. He too was grinning from cheek to cheek, bowed a couple times from his seat and blushed. Really lovely to see! 🙂

We got a special surprise treat during Locomotion OMG! So instead of Mr. M going over to Mr. H. to goof around, tonight he jokingly stood at the other end of the stage, pointed to Mr. H. and motioned for him to come over….and suddenly Mr. H. DID! He literally left his keys and ran over to Mr. M.! Sadly, because I wasn’t expecting that, I grabbed my camera but all my pics are blurry (tho I’ll throw one in for an idea at least) but it was hilarious because they messed around a little, then Mr. M. said “oh, I’m going over here then” and pointed to Mr. H.s area just as Mr. H. went to run back to his keyboard. They then tried to finish their joking around in the usual spot but Mr. M. kept laughing and then said “that fucked me up” and they both laughed. It was great! Once over, Mr. M. laughed and said “don’t do that again, you totally fucked me up” (but he was laughing so it was said in a funny nice way 😉 ) and Mr. H. said “I knew it would, that’s why I did it”. 😀

Stu’s turn for a great cheer after SotSS which meant each guy got their own huge and personal cheering moment which was great! And before we knew it, it was time for EG. More bouncing from everyone and then a nice long stance of the band in front as they soaked up the crowd. Mr. H. thanked us for being so wonderful and Stu gave the crowd a heart with his hands. 🙂 I jokingly put my flashlight on and started waving it back and forth to an OMD chant that took off but funny enough, when I looked around, I saw quite a few other lit up phones. Maybe it’s a CA thing LOL 😀 When they came back, Mr. M. joked and said “so Elon Musk just called us and offered us $44,000,000 so we’re retiring after this. Tonight is our last show, who needs southern California eh?” Mr. H. laughed and said “that sounds good”. 😀 Mr. M. then said “but if it’s our last show tonight, I GUESS we better do this one movie song they’re probably waiting to hear”. Mr. H. said “yeah, yeah we better..”

Mr. M. told the story about Secret having to be pulled off the radio due to IYL and yet, like all the other shows, the crowd loved it. Every time they do it, I remember back to when they came to the states for the first time in over 20 years…back in 2011…and they didn’t have that song in the set list. I can’t even count how many times I’d hear someone yell “SECRET!” “I’ve got a SECRET” so now that they do it, it makes me smile and mentally (sometimes physically) chuckle from the memory. 😀 Electricity went down wonderfully and then it was more waves and thank yous to the crowd, some hugs among the band and then off they went. A bit of a strange one since many of us were masked but that also made me think and wonder just how loud the crowd REALLY would have been had there not been the mask mandate LOL… 😉 Quick hugs and such with the gang and a surprise to see our friend Pammy come find us as we thought she was going to be missing all the gigs (she had tickets but something came up making her have to scrap them. 🙁 ) so it was a nice quick reunion and chat as we were being ushered out the door by staff. I THOUGHT I had about 30ish minutes back to my hotel but also an early rise so I said my goodbyes before the rest but OMG, it ended up being 81 miles (compared to about 20 to get to the venue) and 85 minutes! UGH! Darn SF having only 1 way bridges. 🙁

OK, so highlight of the night…easy one tonight…Locomotin antics! It was just so fun and the band’s comradery is ALWAYS great! this was just a surprise fun way to see it and gotta love them all for the genuine antics! Next up, San Diego area in my first seated venue… 🙂