Vancouver-June 9th, 2025

So MY second tour leg started and it’s 8 gigs on the west coast….Vancouver being the first. It’d been YEARS since I was in Vancouver but it’s a very pretty city! 🙂 I flew into Seattle and picked up a rental car (OMG, 1.5 hours to get it, the line was loooooong!) and then headed up. Just my luck to get into the slow moving lane at the border. When I got up to the guy, I knew why…50 questions. And he immediately got suspicious when he saw I was from outside Chicago… “you flew into Seattle just TODAY?” Where’s the car from? Who are you seeing? OM WHO?”(asked him if he ever saw Pretty In Pink and got a seriously flat NO. Um…ok THAT didn’t help LOL) Where are they playing? You came all the way here just for tonight’s show? (told him no, I’m back to Seattle the next day and doing the west coast shows, 8 in all). “So you’re an avid fan then huh? Seen them before?” But in the end, he kind of just gave me a look like “ok whatever wacko” and handed me back my passport to go on my merry way LOL.😂👍

Hit a bit of a snag when my phone didn’t work once into Canada. It was SUPPOSED to, paid for the international bit (yes, Canada is still international on my plan) but nope. So I was a bit nervous but I had set my Google Maps to first the Build a  Bear store and then the hotel and it got me there safely. Parking was another adventure as my hotel was downtown…literally kiddy corner to the venue…but no parking. I tried a couple lots but nothing had 24hr parking once I pulled in and checked so a couple really tight backing up bits before I just drove past the hotel, parked on the main street and literally ran into the hotel (didn’t want to get towed as it was a limited pay at meter parking spot) where I got directions on where and what to do. But I made it!

I was super glad the venue was so close since it was well after 6pm when I checked into my room. Originally I wasn’t going to go until about 8:30 as I don’t care about seeing WD but a lovely suprise occurred and a Vancouver friend I’d not seen for AGES commented on my FB post I made at the airport earlier so instead I headed over at 7:15 so we could visit. Selena and I met back in 2011 on the fall OMD tour and we jokingly say we are Miami Conspiracy partners because that was the gig I had 3 gift baskets that a bunch of us fans had put together to give…one for the guys, one for the crew and one for the record label. Too much to carry so after talking to Ryan and getting the green light to bring things into the bands area (they were off somewhere so no we didn’t SEE them but that was OK as the goal was to just make sure everyone got their  baskets), Selina helped me carry things from my car to the venue and in. It was great fun and we hung out the rest of the night. We’ve remained friends and the last time I saw OMD in Vancouver plus when Glasvegas played, we met up for meals and shows.  But it’d been SO long I hadn’t thought to check in with her so I was SO glad she checked in on my post because it was great to see her! AND, good thing we met at 7:15 because dummy me didn’t pay attention to the fact that it was a 7:30 show vs 8:00 so if I showed up at 8:30 as planned, I’d have walked into the start of OMD!😟😟 Note to self, check EVERY TICKET prior and don’t assume!

I had a great seat for this show thanks to Pammy and I paying a bit more when they went on sale. Originally it was to have been the fisrt show of tour and as already stated, I have to be front for first and last. Sadly Pammy had to pull out of all but 1 west coast show now so I was flying solo in the seated area (Selina wasn’t too far tho, literally 5 rows back and 4 seats over). The venue was very pretty and funny enough, as I was taking a picture of the side wall and lights, a lady was like ‘the ceiling is pretty too” so I looked and Yup! (Plus there was the chandelier mentioned later in OMD’s FB post😉)  I joked with the girl who was sitting next to me once I was back at my seat after visiting and bathroom break of intermission and as it turned out, she was so happy to have bought my ticket because “I’ve never done a show alone before but I wanted to see them and then I saw your ticket was good and a reasonable price.” (I just listed it for what we paid despite many others being a lot more). YAY, glad it went to someone who can really enjoy it!😀👍

I knew it was going to be a great crowd when the cheers were heard over the start of Anthropocene before the guys even came out…and I was right. Wow Vancouver! 😀👌 It continued with the loudest clapping I’d heard during same song. The guys picked up on it too and were all smiles and Mr. M. said “we were going to say even tho the symphony has played here doesn’t mean there can’t be a party but you’ve already brought it!”. TG also had the loudest “no, No, NO” (I did my response once but othewise just left it as it was great to hear all the singing along LOL).

I forgot to mention that Steph, Paula and Pat were front row right in front of me. Steph had told me they came “prepared” and I thought that meant Mr. H. and FLaD but nope, they started early LOL. When Mr. M. put down his bass and said it was time to dance, someone started waving their arms around so he said “no, not like THAT, just bounce” LOL. Lots of bouncing around and then the slew of bras and underwear came at him. He started laughing and missed half the verse so told us to just bounce again LOL.😆 When it was over, Mr. M. joked and said “they’re getting bigger in size”. I then heard him say to a guy that he liked his shirt because it was Liverpool’s team and told him to keep standing because “now Paul is coming and he’s a Manchester United fan”. The crowd laughed and Mr. H. came down to do FLaD. He too got pelted with the bras but also a pair of boxers that landed right on his mic stand…good aim LOL.😂

The “song from the John Hughes movie” that the border patrol guy didn’t know was next LOL. Oh my, the singing along was awesome, as was the massive cheering afterwards! The A&M trio was a bit extra special for me, particularly JoA as I had something sentimental happen to me earlier in the day (long story) and that song often makes me think of my childhood, my deceased parents and life memories so I soaked it up even more than I usually do. LOVE getting to see and hear that song every show! ❤️ The crowd just went wild after MoO too, everyone was grinning from ear to ear on stage for sure!

Things mellowed out for Veruschka tho when the lights went down and people were moving around on stage, the crowd still cheered, they knew something different was about to happen. The only slow moment, then it was back to bouncing around and the crowd was up for it. I should mention there was a great diversity to the  crowd. I saw 2 girls who had snuck their way up to the front who were teenagers and literally in their same row (before they snuck up) was a lady that was about as old as I’ve seen them at an OMD concert…I’m guessing mid 70s maybe. But I had to smile at the massive generation difference, and tho the older lady wasn’t bouncing, she was BOPPING.😀👍

Pandora’s Box found Mr. M. collecting all the lingerie that had collected by Stuart and dropping it on Steph’s head, much to her enjoyment and laughter. More awesome singing to SiL and Dreaming and Mr. M. looked at the teenagers and asked them how they knew the words. He was definitely getting a kick out of the two bouncing and singing as he reached out to slap their hands. SotSS had Stuart and Mr. C. moments to shine and then it was time for EG. Everyone was ready, bouncing around and such and once over, the crowd just cheered and  cheered. Mr. M. said “we love the Commodore but wanted a bigger place. You were a great crowd but just MORE of you. Thank you”. Mr. H. echoed by saying we made the night “so very special, really, THANK YOU!”

After a bit of cheers, whistles and phone flashlights waving up in the balcony, the guys came back on. Mr. M. first gave his sweaty towel to one of the teens, then laughed and pointing to us on the floor said “you guys are always great but it’s rare we get such an amazing balcony”. Balcony people (who were pretty much all standing) started cheering even louder and Mr. M. said “really, you’ve been great the whole show and balconies usually aren’t like that so thank you.” (to make sure balcony goers don’t get upset by that, I’ll clarify that he was referring to how they were all standing and dancing, bouncing etc the WHOLE night😉).

Arms swayed during LaYN and then it was another Mr. H. song with Secret. Mr. M. handed both teens a pic but another older lady was wanting one too so he went back to his microphone stand and grabbed another to give to her. He then joked and said “this is my last pic, I hope I don’t drop it”. He didn’t and Electricity went on with a bunch of us bouncing without even being told to LOL. More thank yous and waves from all the guys before leaving the stage for good.

Since the show was earlier than expected, I met up with Selina for a bit more visiting as she was nice and decided to stand by the tour bus with me for a little while (contrary to popular belief, it’s been AGES since I’ve been able to give the guys a hug and say hi. Damn Covid has just really changed things so much!😠😢😞) But after about 45 minutes she had to go and I didn’t want to stand alone so we walked to the corner together, she grabbed a cab and I just had to cross the corner to get to my hotel LOL.

So…highlight of the night. Well, gotta say getting to meet up with Selina again since it’s been SO long. Tho the awesome and diversified crowd would be a second. Out of the 4 shows I’ve seen so far, this was the best crowd. 😀