oh em dee

so, thursday night (may 12) i got to go see O.M.D. again…

it had been exactly thirty-four years and one day since i’d last seen them. they are technically my first band i ever saw live, as the first concert i ever went to (musically) was depeche mode on their music for the masses tour back in 1988, where the opener was orchestral maneuvers in the dark, or O.M.D. for short. they have put out two greatest hits compilations, one in 1987 and one in 2019, and they’ve toured for both. i’ve seen both tours.

(i distinguish it as my first MUSICAL concert, because technically my first concert was sam kinison on my sixteenth birthday, june 19, 1987)

the show was at the austin city limits live venue in downtown austin, and i learned a few things. six, in fact (hey, it is sunday and i haven’t done a sunday six pack in a minute)

1. i don’t know nearly as much of their catalog as i thought i did, but it was still a great show.

2. they have speakers in the restrooms that pump the audio from the show in (not really loudly) so you can still enjoy the show while you piss as the bathrooms are out of the venue and since said room is acoustically awesome very little sound escapes it.

3. the people i met as a teenager at curfew and the sanitarium (austin clubs circa 1988) are still fun to hang out with in our fifties. also, while i used to kinda giggle at the “alternative” dress at the time (lost of black, leather, spikes, doc martens) because everyone in our group looked the same (which didn’t seem very alternative to me) now it pops up so rarely it truly has become alternative.

4. i paid $35 for an O.M.D. shirt on the 2022 tour, and $25 for the one from 1988 tour. i think they’ve technically gotten cheaper if you adjust for inflation.

5. this was my third time to this venue (previously for anthrax and wu-tang) and while i spent $50 for balcony for anthrax ($99 for the same seat for wu) that $50 got me on the floor for this one, and i am convinced there’s not a bad seat in the house. while the floor seems to be flat i could see well from pretty much anywhere on it i wandered (unless said wandering was behind somebody really really tall). if somebody you like plays here, i can’t recommend it enough.

and finally…

6. a twenty year old tip – when star tickets was still downtown there was a food court in our building regularly frequented by APD Parking Enforcement (i.e. “meter maids”) and one time i grabbed my food and turned around to sit to find there were ZERO tables open, but they waved me over. they always sat together, and most folks literally scowled at them or gave them the finger because there’s is a bit of an unpopular profession (to say the least). so sitting down with them that day i felt like i was slumming at the unpopular kid table in the high school cafeteria, but one of them offered me some advice – meter readers are city employees, work city hours (8-5, M-F) and like everyone else that works a government gig, their bosses fucking DESPISE overtime. so if you feed a meter (or in this case pay for that little sticker for your window) it’s a total sucker move because they’re home on their couch with a beer and will NOT be ticketing you. so, i parked a block from the venue in front of a busy sushi joint i probably can’t afford, left my car for three hours, didn’t pay shit, and didn’t have a ticket upon my return.

so now you know!