Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) in Vancouver at the Commodore Ballroom

Who has two thumbs and got a chance to see Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) in Vancouver last night at the Commodore Ballroom? THIS GUY! (*points thumbs to himself*)

Raul!? Did you attend the OMD concert? Why yes, yes I did

Last night I was one of the lucky attendees of the Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (also well known for their acronym OMD) at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver (huge shout out to the girls at the coat check who saved my night, literally – these girls totally rock, you have no idea). I had never seen OMD live in concert but since my last live concert (also at The Commodore, Chromeo), I have become a bit of an addict to live concerts. And last night was again a good reminder that it was a great idea to decide to cover more live concerts. OMD provided a packed Commodore Ballroom with one of their best experiences.

OMD sounded just as amazing as they probably did 30 years ago (I’ve seen some of their videos from that era). Several of my friends were sending me tweets “OMG you’re at OMD” which I found quite cute. I bumped into a couple of friends there (Simone Abt from Elettra Communications and Leigh Christie from eatART), and I knew others were there too as I followed the Twitter stream hashtag. A bit of information on OMD from Wikipedia:

OMD are a synthpop group whose founding members are originally from the Wirral Peninsula, England. OMD were originally assimilated in the greater new wave batch of synthesiser-based acts of the later 1970s–early 1980s. The group was founded in 1978 by Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys who remained, and were perceived as, the core members. Adding sidemen Malcolm Holmes and Martin Cooper by the end of 1980, this quartet (with occasional line-up fluctuations) was the live concert line-up until 1989, when Humphreys, Cooper and Holmes all left OMD to found The Listening Pool. McCluskey then retained the OMD name and continued to record and tour as OMD with new line-ups through 1996. Although McCluskey essentially retired the OMD name in 1996, shortly thereafter Humphreys began playing live shows as OMD with other musicians on an as-needed basis, but without McCluskey. Then in late December 2005, OMD’s official website announced a forthcoming reformation of the “classic” 1980′s line-up Humpheys/McCluskey/Cooper/Holmes), both for live performances and for a new studio album. This reformed quartet began touring in 2007, and further successful sold-out tours took place in 2008 and 2009. OMD’s most recent studio album History of Modern was released on 20 September 2010.

While I’m not 100% sure of the set list because I didn’t know ALL of their songs, I recognized a few, like “If You Leave” which was one of my favorite songs as I was growing up.

Andy McCluskey totally played out for the crowd. From where I was standing (very, very close to front row) he came close to sing to the crowd, and touch/high-five a few people too (a gesture of approachability that put everyone in a fantastic mood). Also, Andy danced his heart away (even though, well, his dancing as he admitted, wasn’t precisely the best!) and he made us jump, dance and sing along.

The show was completely sold out, and the crowd was (completely uncharacteristic from my previous experiences at live concerts in Vancouver) totally rocking out to the music. The age spectrum I found was pretty impressive, from very young kids who could be Andy’s children to people about his age. And everyone loved each song. I was pretty delighted with Dreaming.

Dreaming is one of those songs you can never get enough of. I always found OMD’s music extremely heart-warming and quite “clean” if you get what I mean (e.g. nothing of explicit or vulgar lyrics, etc.) One of those amazing groups you HAVE to see live, I would strongly encourage you to attend their concert (they’re on a North American tour right now) if they are passing by your city.

I attended the Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark on media tickets to review the concert. I’m neither paid for nor compensated in any other way for this review. I retain editorial control on anything that is published on my site.

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