by romanticide » Fri Mar 11, 2011 3:38 pm
Saw Oh Land and OMD at the 9:30 Club in DC on Thursday Night (3/11). The Oh Land set list was taken entirely from her new album:
1. Wolf & I
2. Voodoo
3. White Nights
4. Rainbow
5. Perfection
6. Son of a Gun
7. We Turn It Up
I hadn't seen OMD since '86. I previously saw them headline (with Love Tractor opening) on the Crush tour (in Atlanta at Center Stage Theater) and open for New Order on the Pacific Age tour (in Atlanta at the Fox). My wife also saw them on the Sugar Tax tour (in DC at the old 9:30 Club on F Street). McCluskey kept saying that they hadn't been to DC in 23 years, but obviously, he should have been saying 20 years. Still, a long wait for the faithful.
And we almost missed it! My wife happened to see an advertisement in the paper the afternoon of the show. Given that it is her all time favorite band, we bought tickets, scrambled to get child care, and made it to the show on time.
I was amazed at how tight their sound was and how much energy Andy McCluskey had. I'm only a few years younger, and I don't think I could have bounced around that stage for the better part of two hours the way he did. The set list was the same as the one we saw listed for the New York show (stop reading now if you don't want a spoiler):
New Babies: New Toys
Messages
Tesla Girls
Radio Waves
History of Modern (Part 1)
(Forever) Live and Die
If You Leave
Souvenir
Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc (Maid of Orleans)
New Holy Ground
Green
Talking Loud and Clear
So in Love
Sister Marie Says
Locomotion
Dreaming
Sailing on the Seven Seas
Enola Gay
Walking on the Milky Way
Electricity
Some of the new material is just spectacular, particularly "New Babies: New Toys", "History of Modern (Part 1)", and "Sister Marie Says". Interesting that they didn't play "If You Want It", the first single from the new album. Personally, I preferred the songs they chose to play.
The crowd was a good mix of young and older. I was actually surprised at the number of twenty and thirty somethings in attendance. The crowd was initially somewhat reserved, but by "Tesla Girls", the place was bouncing pretty well. "(Forever) Live and Die" received a pretty strong response, somewhat surprising to me, given that I didn't think it was one of their more famous tracks. After a somewhat tepid reading of "If You Leave" (not the strongest track for a concert environment), the crowd really took off with spectacular performances of "Joan of Arc" and "Joan of Arc (Maid of Orleans)". After the latter, the crowd was apoplectic for more than a full minute, (the kind of full-on craziness usually reserved for calling a band back for a final encore), leaving the band and an exhausted Andy McCluskey seemingly somewhat stunned. Given that my wife and I had our first dance at our wedding reception to Joan of Arc (Maid of Orleans)" (it is a waltz, after all), we were really glad to see such a strong performance and positive response. The crowd was hooked by that point. McCluskey caught his breath during the following quieter numbers and actually sang the first half of "Talking Loud and Clear" sitting on his amp (which didn't detract a bit from the song). He still has a great voice, and really hit the high notes on "So in Love". The performance accelerated from that point through the finish. "Walking on the Milky Way" was an unexpected treat. My wife woke up singing it the next morning.
Bands are never as good when they come back from a long recess, except when they are. This was one of those rare exceptions. What a pleasant surprise! If you have the opportunity, go see them. You won't be disappointed.