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:Concert Review: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
March 10, 2011
Washington D.C., U.S. @ 930 Club

Review By: Limin Li

For those who have been living under an 80’s synth-pop/new wave rock, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark or OMD for short has been a band with chart topping hits all through the 80’s and early 90’s For me personally, it was an eargasm in the making. Everything I have been listening to and DJing all has some sort of melodic sounds, which is very similar to all of the OMD’s hits. There was no way that I was not going to this show.

Keep in mind, this was my first time stepping into 9:30 Club. I went in, located my friend and grabbed a drink. As I was crowd scanning, I noticed a lot of the fans were more mature than me and very diverse. It make sense because the fact that this is an 80’s group.

First, the warm up band, Oh Land, came on. Oh Land is a New York City based band that plays a similar genre of music as compare to OMD. To my personal beliefs, they sounded more towards inde-electronica versus new wave. Lead singer, Nanna Øland Fabricius came to the mic and said, “Hey everyone, we are Oh Land, and we are here to support OMD!” As the crowd getting bigger and bigger, Nanna introduce a song called “White Night”. Nanna said, this next song is for those times when you can’t go to sleep in the nighttime. Nanna wipe out her instrumental stick and beating to a synthesizer machine and crowd went wild.

After Oh Land’s epic performance, there was a 30 minutes transition/intermission. As the crowd was really anxious, lead singer of OMD Andy McCluskey came along with Paul Humphreys and the crowd went wild! Andy did his usual guitar and dance moves. You know the swing your arms back and forth. The first few tracks that they played, I really didn’t have any idea for the title, however I was in the mood to dance my butt off. Every song that they played had a very uplifting melody and a positive message in them, until Andy came on the microphone and said, “this is one of our new songs”. Indeed, the song was called “Sister Marie Said” which was off their latest album after 18 years on hiatus. The sounds of the track were really up to date. If I can put in words, it sounds like Deadmau5 versus The Killers type of track. I was really pleased with song itself.

Next thing you know, “If You Leave” came on and I put my fist and started pumping! Everyone in the crowd was either clapping to the beats or singing along. I said to my friend at that time, “Now I can die happy!” Before the show ended, OMD played one more classic and it was none other than “Onola Gay”. The band stop playing around 10:30PM and crowd wasn’t down yet. We all kept on cheering OMD repeatedly. Guess what? They came back for two more encores! The last song they played was one of the song they ever written with Andy and Paul. Andy came back to the microphone and said, ”Wow, it only took 23 years huh. Don’t worry, we will be back soon!” Overall, it was an great night! It was a great break from the usual Electronic Dance Music that I listen to on a regular basis.



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