{"id":1437,"date":"2013-03-19T00:21:18","date_gmt":"2013-03-19T00:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/omdculture.com\/?p=1437"},"modified":"2013-03-21T02:54:40","modified_gmt":"2013-03-21T02:54:40","slug":"minneapolis-september-26th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/omdculture.com\/?p=1437","title":{"rendered":"Minneapolis September 26th, 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tour Stop #9 \u2013 First Avenue, Minneapolis September 26th, 2011<\/h1>\n
\n

\"\"<\/a>Well, I headed off for the long drive up to Minneapolis with the hopes of seeing some beautiful fall foliage\u2026. um, I did, but it was often through pouring rain. But lovely just the same, AND, at one point, the rain produced a gorgeous rainbow that went across the freeway from one end to the other! =o)<\/p>\n

The plan was to get to Alexa\u2019s in time to drop my stuff off and then head down to the venue as she had a Gold package. I got in a little late and then we hit traffic so her boyfriend Andreas dropped her off and we drove around to eventually find parking and make our way back. The venue, from the outside, was a really cool thing to check out because all along the black building were stars with band names in them. I was amazed how far it stretched and how many stars were filled. I looked for OMD (because they had Duran Duran, Eurythmics, Psychedelic Furs etc) but nothing (though that didn\u2019t stop me from teasing the security guards later \u201cso when are you going to put OMD\u2019s name in one?\u201d to which I got \u201cI don\u2019t know\u2026. maybe tonight\u201d. LOL)<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nAs Andreas and I killed time, we could hear the band from outside which was a nice bonus. When Alexa came out, she gave us the run down of the venue set up\u2026. hmm, high stage that was taller than the one in Milwaukee\u2026 shoot. I told her I\u2019d let her decide if we were going to do balcony or floor as she said the barrier put us back a bit so maybe the height wouldn\u2019t be too bad. As it turned out, we did floor.<\/p>\n

So there\u2019s a lot that can be said about the crowd we saw that night but I\u2019m just going to say \u201chugely eclectic\u201d and leave it at that! This caused us to wonder what kind of night it was going to be but as Alexa, Mark, Melissa and I braced ourselves in the front row (Andreas was up in the balcony), we were pleasantly surprised!<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nThe lights went down,\u00a0Dazzle Ships\"\"\u00a0began to play and then BAM,\u00a0New Babies: New Toys\"\"\u00a0started and the crowd exploded! Tons of screams, cheers and dancing and it was only the first song. Immediately this was promising to be great and Mr. M said something to that extent after\u00a0Messages\"\", which was also well received. I couldn\u2019t help but laugh as I remembered Eric\u2019s and how hot we were\u2026 mainly because tonight the \u201cbakers\u201d (multiple bulb lights that flash out brightly onto the guys and are used I think also for\u00a0Maid Of Orleans\"\") were pointing right at us on our side. OMG, heat, heat, and more heat and Mark joked that he was going to have a suntan by the end of the gig. But as Andrew (um, crewman, not forumer) said to me in Milwaukee as he was moving said baker lights around, \u201cMen sweat, woman glow\u201d\u2026. well Mark and I were doing just that!<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nWhen it came time for\u00a0History of Modern (Part I)\"\"\u00a0and Mr. M demanded that we join in the bad dancing, that\u2019s exactly what we all did, though some how the front row had gotten a bit squashed together so shoulders and butts were smooshed into one at times. But we didn\u2019t care! Just like back in March for NYC gig, this one had a girl to stage left who was going crazy for Mr. H. I heard screams of \u201cwe love you Paul\u201d coming from that corner and when\u00a0(Forever)
\nLive And Die\"\"\u00a0came out, girls just went nuts (and that continued for\u00a0Souvenir\"\"too, tee hee.)<\/p>\n

If You Leave\"\", well shoot, that was one that got probably the best sing-a-long of the night along with huge cheers when Mr. C let loose to do his thing on the sax! When it was done, there wasn\u2019t a single person who wasn\u2019t cheering loudly. I was recording it and just had to pan the crowd, it was amazing!<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nJoan Of Arc\"\"\u00a0and\u00a0Maid Of Orleans\"\"\u2026 well as anyone who\u2019s seen OMD live knows, those two songs are killers and amazing to see in the flesh so when they were done, Minneapolis made it clear they were impressed! Mr. M and Co. all had enormous smiles on their faces, pure surprise and joy just like in March and this back and forth of us cheering and them all looking at each other amazed, laughing and clapping back to us with \u201cthank you\u2019s went on for a bit. sweet!<\/p>\n

I\u2019m happy to say that though there was a couple who began to talk a bit in\u00a0Statues\"\", they didn\u2019t carry on too long so we had a peaceful few minutes tonight, phew! And then\u00a0Green\"\"\u2026 this song has totally turned into a \u2018mingle with the crowd no matter what\u2019 song\u2026 as mentioned, prior to the gig, Alexa spoke of how tall the stage was and said there\u2019d be no way Mr. M would be able to get down to the barrier steps\/platforms and back again so we figured he may just bend over and sing or something. Well nope, we got in and LOL, saw they had taken one of the equipment cases on wheels, turned it on its side, strapped it down and essentially made a midway \u201cstep\u201d for him to come down, which was exactly what he did. Well OK then.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nAfter three slower songs, the crowd got their rests in too and as\u00a0So In Love\"\"\u00a0started, everyone was up, dancing and singing loudly. And that mentality of \u201cWhoo Hoo\u201c just carried on through\u00a0Sister Marie Says\"\"\u00a0which found Mr. M giving a sinisterly funny laugh after his \u201cDon\u2019t let me in\u201d line. Song after song, the frenzy grew and at this point Alexa and I were going crazy, arms all over the place, cheering, hugging and bouncing, it was just friggin great! Mr. H was extra bouncy, no doubt fueled by the crowd and lots of smiles from Mr. C and Mr. H #2 also with the former getting a great crowd reaction from his earlier solo.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nSo that leads us up to\u00a0Enola Gay\"\". Well, gotta tell ya, Alexa and I were at Chicago when we had the scare of a near fall off stage by Mr. M. but tonight gave us another scare, though as it turned out, only a perceived one. The song started, drums clicking along and Mr. M is doing his intro telling everyone it\u2019s the last song. Mr. H#2 is sitting there all happy as it\u2019s near his time to hit the sticks while he counts 1,2,3,4 and gets things going but all of a sudden, he just goes down\u2026 as in bends (or we thought maybe slumped) down. The drums keep clicking away, now past the normal intro, Mr. M looks over like \u201cWhat\u2019s going on here?\u201d and I just stopped in mid clap as I immediately thought the worst. Well it was only a matter of a few more seconds and up popped Mr. H #2, arms out stretched and then off he went but I turned to Alexa and was like \u201cOMG! I thought it was his heart!\u201d and, giving me the same look I\u2019m sure I was giving her, she said \u201cMe too!\u201d That\u2019s two scares in 3 days, at this rate, by the end of the tour Mr. H#2 isn\u2019t going to be the only person with a heart condition but PHEW that it was nothing and Alexa and I quickly joined the others again in the celebration.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nWhen it was over, the guys just stood there floored by the crowds\u2019 response. Ecstatic pandemonium is the best way I can explain us fans and they all thanked us over and over before leaving. When they returned on stage to the same thing, Mr. M. looked out and said \u201cI\u2019ve run out of things to say really\u2026 thank you!\u201d Encores of course came next and Mr. H dedicated\u00a0Secret\"\"\u00a0to the girl that had been going crazy for him, saying it was because she had it written on her arm\u2026 and she proudly raised her arm up so everyone could see \u201cSecret\u201d written in black, oh my. Before\u00a0Electricity\"\"\u00a0began, Mr. M gave one final thank you \u201cFor making tonight fantastically brilliant\u201d, then they launched into their final number and all too quickly it was done and we sadly had to wave a final goodbye. But WOW, not what we were expecting from early on in the night but something that won\u2019t be forgotten by anyone lucky enough to experience it for sure.<\/p>\n

So, highlight of the night\u2026. well, I don\u2019t mean to make this so openly blanketed but I can\u2019t help it. I\u2019d have to say just the whole night in general. No offense to other gigs thus far this tour as they\u2019ve all been special in their own way but this one really transported me back to March with the sounds of the crowd, the continuous band reactions, the elated feel of bouncing crazily with friends, the sheer essence of it all, especially since no one saw it coming. I kept thinking about Dallas and how that was such a surprise gig, well so was Minneapolis! Awesome!!! What a way to end my first \u201cleg\u201d of the tour\u2026 now back to the real world for a bit, LOL. ;o)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Previously posted at\u00a0omd-messages.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tour Stop #9 \u2013 First Avenue, Minneapolis September 26th, 2011 Well, I headed off for the long drive up to Minneapolis with the hopes of seeing some beautiful fall foliage\u2026. um, I did, but it was often through pouring rain. But lovely just the same, AND, at one point, the rain produced a gorgeous rainbow […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2011-omd-na-tour-part-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/omdculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/omdculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/omdculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omdculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omdculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1437"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/omdculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1467,"href":"https:\/\/omdculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1437\/revisions\/1467"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omdculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/omdculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omdculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omdculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}