Flashback, What a Feeling...

I swore that after that last 80's concert I would take photos of anyone who came in costume. The guy said that he had to confess that he had all of that in his closet (including the headband) then he tried to justify it by saying it wasn't his day to day closet... sorry dude, you already claimed it.

After my great success in attending the Yaz tour I decided to get tickets to the ReGeneration Tour this summer featuring an entire slate of 80's acts that apparently couldn't pull in the big attendance without one another. Then I looked at the ticket prices and remembered my burning desire to see Europe or fill my gas tank once more before I die and decided to not get tickets.

As luck would have it the very next day I got an offer from the concert promoter that there were $10 tickets being offered for one day only the following Friday. I panicked and bought 8. Then I saw that they still charged the $8 "convenience fee" (not convenient for me, thank you) and suddenly my $80 worth of tickets had jumped to $144. Ironically I could have had front row seats for his price, but let's not dwell on that.

Now I had 8 tickets and only two were spoken for, myself and my friend Rachel. First I had to convince Lyle to go, then I checked in with some other friends and before you know it, 7 tickets were given out! I hunted about for that last person to fulfill my bus capacity (sorry Christopher) but in the end, loosing out on giving away $18 was deemed no harm no foul. Our seats were the LAST ROW in the balcony. To be fair, shitty seats. But we really didn't care. We were out just for fun on a Tuesday night.

Proud to be lovin' up some 80's...

Ashamed to be so far in the back?
Nice torn wall Universal Amphitheater...

I just knew there was a reason I love Phillip so much. It's like we're twins!

Here's my disclaimer for the event. I bought a new camera. I was so excited. This one can zoom in better than my old one and even zoom in on the video setting. What I didn't realize until AFTER I had uploaded the files to iphoto and cleared the card was that somewhere between the new camera and iphoto, the system didn't automatically import any video clips over one minutes long. In the grand scheme of things it's not a huge deal. But I diligently took video of COMPLETE songs just to share with you here. So I have no performances by some artists and the performances I do have are parts of songs that were not my first choice. My first choice songs were full and apparently over one minute long. The camera is not pleasing me. Perhaps some of your prayers were answered that fateful day because now I will be unable to torture you with my Zapruter style of hand held filming... However, I have tried to recreate my filming with the aid of youtube. But that is not what I am here to share right now.

First up was Naked Eyes.

Apparently one half of the duo passed away 8 years ago. Sad spot. But the other half who did appeared was in good form. They kicked off with "Always Something There To Remind Me" and since I was standing outside next to Lyle in the bar line and not in my seat, I had a total freak out, "OHMYGODTHECONCERTISSTARTINGITOLDYOUWE'DBELATEIFWEGOTDRINKS!!!" (translated: Oh my god the concert is starting. I told you we'd be late if we got drinks!") and I RAN into the amphitheater.

There were a few songs I didn't know and then they closed their portion with "Promises, Promises." The crowd loves a hit they recognize.

And yes, there was going to be a lot "Diana Ross" singing tonight.

Then some lag time while the stage was reset. Never a good sign. But it did allow some time for a quick beer run out to the bar, but not for me. I was still smarting from missing almost half a song at the beginning of the night.

Then ABC took the stage.

I don't know if anyone except the lead singer was in the original ABC but since he was the voice you heard he was most important to show up. And he sounded great. He was tanned and tall and some in our group thought he looked like a retired gay guy in Palm Springs.

He did a bunch of hits and one new song. To be fair, this crowd preferred the hits. And my personal favorite "When Smokey Sings". (which the camera failed to import for us all to enjoy.)

This is pretty much what my video would have looked like... WAY UP IN THE NOSEBLEED SEATS:

Then Belinda Carlisle.

At this point we discussed that it very much felt like the bill you would see at a Gay Pride festival. That's not a complaint. We all love us some Belinda. I've got no footage of her performing as I love every song she does and took way too long a video of her. Specifically I made sure to get the entire performance of "Our Lips Are Sealed" to share with my dear friend Lewis in Vancouver (and Portland is PDXLewis loves the Go-Go's as much)... thank god for youtube...

While Belinda used the same band and staging as ABC (Belinda added an area rug for her to dance on) Human League would be next up and they were doing another complete stage set up.

This break there was no beer acquired. Instead beer was deposited (if you get my drift).

Then, HUMAN LEAGUE!
I had no idea I was so excited to see them but they were amazing.

I kept wondering if these are the same "de-la-la girls" because I was loving them up.


Since I am that kind of person who checks the set list before the concert I knew there was one song I HAD to get for my friend Robb (It's not even a Human League song the lead singer had recorded it with Giorgio Moroder) but praise the Gods of 80's pop, they brought it out for their encore!

By the way, I loved the feather headresses.