OMD

Let’s all climb The Bauhaus Staircase, in Germany.

Concert Review

Artist: OMD
Date: January 30 2024
City: Offenbach, Germany
Venue: Stadthalle Offenbach
Supporting Act: Walt Disco

There are those bands in life that you heard once, and then they became a staple in your listening practices, so much so that you really can’t imagine a time in your life when you didn’t hear their music at regular intervals. Such a band is “Orchestral Maneuvers in The Dark” or “OMD” for short.

Last summer I had the opportunity to hear the album before release, and I have to say, I LOVED IT, probably more than I should have. It was some of their best work, showcasing that they are real musicians, whose drive to create manages to get the best of them, and we are all blessed because of it.

I interviewed Andy McClusky last summer, as the last regular episode before shipping out to Germany. It was one of the nerdiest conversations I have ever had with a musician and one of the most enjoyable. I taunted Ken and Jaret here at Sounds & Shadows about the album, I was allowed to share it with them and left them to decide who gets to write about it. Jaret said he was unhappy with the most recent OMD work because it was not very drum heavy. After he heard “Bauhaus Staircase” he immediately responded with “I will rescind my previous critique, this new album is fantastic”.

I had the opportunity to catch the OMD show in the town hall Frankfurt suburb of Offenbach, and, well, when seeing a band like this in Germany comes around, you jump on it.

The Offenbach City Hall venue is very WIDE, and not very deep, so no matter where you are in the hall, you can have a great view of the stage, you might be a very wide stage left or right, with a great acoustic design for sound.

WALT DISCO

The opening band took the stage and looked just eclectic and bizarre, and they lived up to how they looked. I would describe them as “If David Bowie sang for SPARKS in the Great Gatsby”. Their performance was full of theatrical dancing, bantering with the audience, and some fun catchy, but also dark euro-pop. They explained in German “Wir Komen aus Schotland” (Scotland) and they kept everyone entertained with their guitar and synth rock, all while letting us remember David Bowie with their vocals.

OMD

Waiting off to the side, they wouldn’t let us into the photo pit til after the intro tape had finished playing. So I stood in front of the PA system experiencing the track “Evolution of Species” very loudly with a fantastic light show of technology, and human statistics on the light screens was already in progress. Then the line “EXTINCTION” I was allowed into the pit while they opened with “Anthropocene”, Paul took his synth, while the drummer and other keyboardist came on stage, then Andy walked out, and greeted everyone, and danced across the stage. In my interview with Andy he admitted that he is a geek and that even after 40 years of playing live concerts, he still can’t dance. He said, “If I can still get up there and flail about making a fool of myself, I think I can fairly ask the audience to dance with me”. So that is exactly what he was doing, geeking out to his love of technology and philosophy of human history, and dancing like no one was watching. (But we all were). The new album was well underway in this performance, while Andy was like any other show I have ever seen, full of energy waving his arms around and burning a lot of calories.

They then went right back to the beginning with “Messages” with Andy waving his bass wildly as he played, I’m sure by how he has managed to keep from knocking over his mic stand. He was interacting with everyone asking us to sing along, happy to connect with everyone.

They fired off “Tesla Girls” with everyone clapping together and the entire venue was dancing, while Paul and Andy were in perfect tune, sounding as good as they ever did. With a rolling buildup of synth and voice to a simple “GO!” they went into “Kleptocracy”, a song from the new album about…. Well, you know, some world-class conman who has built his power, on corruption, and lies… No need to mention the names here.

Andy was so intense and true to form, he was sweating up a storm already, it is kind of exhausting watching such a tall guy move around on stage like that. They played “History of Modern Part 1”. Showing a dismal bombed-out city for a backdrop, but nice geometric shapes dancing in unison on the screen too. It’s no secret this song was about the end of the world, but who says we need to be depressed about it? By now we were all ready for the epic “If You Leave”, sounding as fresh now, as it did when I first heard the coming-of-age song when I was 12. This was a perfect performance of it, while he was asking all of us to keep singing with him. The band still looked happy to be playing it like this after so many years, live sax and all.

Now, during my interview, I mentioned to Andy that if I never heard the song “Secret” again for the rest of my life it’s still too soon, his response was “Oh that’s fine, it’s not my song” but we joked about “Forever Live and Die” being one of Paul’s masterpieces. He said “Maybe I can get Paul from behind his synth, and get him out front to sing “Forever Live and Die ” for ya”. Well, I felt like he did that for me this evening. Paul and Andy switched places and NAILED it. It was one of those songs that never gets enough airplay, and I tell ya, the New Wave Station in Salt Lake plays OMD once a day. So, hearing this song live in Germany just made the evening special.

Andy went back out front, and then said “That was Paul Humphreys everyone, who was a right bastard and turned down the synth before he came out front”. Paul and he began to banter about that, “I thought you would have noticed it in the monitors, you couldn’t hear that?”. Andy said “And I used to really like you”… All good-natured jabbing and everyone was laughing about it. Then they played the title track from the new album “Bauhaus Staircase”. The new album was mixed well with the other work, and hearing it live mixed in with the “hits” added to the rich history I have with their music. They gave us classics like “Souvenir” and “Joan of Arc”.

They played a string of greats from the new album “Veruschka”, “Healing” and probably my fave step on my way up the “Bauhaus Staircase” “Don’t Go”, which solidified the new work as some of their finest ever. I know that is a hard chore to label a single album as such, but if you have heard this album, you would likely say that. Even more likely once you hear these gems performed live.

With Andy yelling “FANTASTISH, UND DANKE SHOEN!!” at every song, “Dreaming” tossed in with some other classics to close out the first set with “Enola Gay”. This first part of the set was honestly more than enough. The visuals, the tight performance, in perfect tune, and the interaction with the punters, but they didn’t look worn out yet, so we knew they were coming back.

After a brief intermission, and no one showing that they were going to leave any time soon, Paul, Martin, Stuart, and Andy came back on the stage, giving special thanks to the really groovy “Walt Disco” for supporting them. Then they finished off the evening with two from Bauhaus Staircase “Look at You Now” and “Pandora’s Box”, and then the one that (I think anyway) started it all “Electricity”. To a roaring crowd, OMD gave us all a happy bow and thanked all of us for sharing the evening with them.

Though they might look old, and yes, they even opened for Joy Division in the early days, OMD has managed to still deliver a current sound, and entertain fans for 40+ years, and this evening was no different. I hope you have all listened to Bauhaus Staircase by now, if you haven’t there is still time before they hit the States on this tour. Cause you are going to LOVE hearing them live.

https://omd.uk.com

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