August 20, 2023 -- Oh It's 80s Night!

Concord Pavilion
Concord, CA

A few months ago my friend Barbara sent a message to our Mercy Girls group text -- she had a Groupon for tickets to see Culture Club with Berlin and Howard Jones at the Concord Pavilion, was anyone interested in joining her? It was a pretty good deal, so I said what the heck. Our friend Lora said she'd go too so long as she didn't have to drive. I volunteered to be the chauffeur for the evening, and the three of us made plans to go to the show.

I haven't been to the Concord Pavilion (current sponsor name "Toyota Pavilion") in over fifteen years. It is a major hassle getting there from the San Francisco Peninsula as it's over an hour-long drive without traffic, and there's always traffic. The absolute worst stretch is the last 8 miles through Concord on the one road that leads to the venue, and after a nightmare experience getting there for a Stevie Wonder concert, I swore I'd never go back unless it was my ONLY option for seeing someone I really wanted to see. Other than a show I already had tickets for that same year, I haven't been back. I've flown to Los Angeles and Las Vegas rather than drive to Concord to see a performer I really wanted to see. So, knowing it was a pain in the rear to get there, my friends and I set out early and arrived shortly after the parking lots opened and managed to get an excellent parking spot in the general parking area that was just the other side of the premiere parking. Score! However, we arrived so early we had to wait about 45 minutes for the gates to open! I can't remember the last time I was that early for a show (recent Matchbox Twenty pre-show event not included.) Eventually the gates opened and we got in with plenty of time to grab something to eat before the show.

One side effect of Barbara getting our tickets via Groupon was she wound up with extra lawn seats in addition to our reserved seats. After multiple attempts to get friends or family to take them, I was able to connect with my cousin Denise and she and a few of her friends took the lawn seats. While we were waiting for our food, I happened to see Denise walking past, so a quick hello and a hug before she headed off to get her spot on the lawn. 

While waiting for the show to start, I had to laugh at the various band t-shirts I spotted on fans in the crowd -- the Go-Gos, the Cure, Duran Duran, Human League -- yep, this was a night for us 80s kids!

Going in to the show, I figured I would know about half to two-thirds of the songs by each act. I enjoyed all of them back in high school, but none were a huge favorite. I was most concerned about Berlin because I could only remember the names of two songs off the top of my head, but knew I probably knew a few more, so I did something I seldom do -- looked up the set lists from earlier in the tour to see what they were playing. I remembered a few more songs after that and was looking forward to hearing them live.

Berlin took the stage right on time at 7:00 and launched into "Masquerade" which, once I heard it again, I remembered, so OK this was going to be better than I thought! Our seats were in the 200 section of the venue, so a bit further from the stage than I would normally get for myself and it meant looking at the video screens a bit more than I normally do. Not a huge problem except that during Berlin's set it was still fairly light out so it was hard to see the screens. It appeared they were playing a lot of their 1980s videos while performing the matching songs. Early in their set, I was a bit distracted when an owl started flying around! Never seen that before! Terri Nunn sounded fantastic and it was great hearing her on "The Metro" and "No More Words." Of course the big highlight of their set was THE HIT -- "Take My Breath Away" (obviously) and everyone was singing along. Berlin played for about half an hour and the stage was quickly turned over for Howard Jones.

Going to a show with two of my high school friends was going to be a blast except there was one problem -- Mary, our resident Howard Jones fanatic, had moved to Portland and Ana Gloria, expert in all things Culture Club, is living in Denver. Well WHAT a bummer to be heading to a fun show with out our two friends who would really love it and definitely would have come if they still lived in the area. I texted them both and asked "What song do you want a for a concert call?" If they couldn't be with us in person, at least they could have a virtual participation. With Howard about to take the stage, I did a quick look up of his set list to see when I could expect Mary's request -- two of the three were the last two songs of his set. Perfect.

After seeing the multitude of '80s band t-shirts and hearing an eclectic mix of 1980s tunes being played over the PA between sets I should not have been surprised when HoJo took to the stage with a keytar! I thought they were extinct! The other notable instrument on stage was what I could only guess at the time was some kind of bass guitar which was the strangest thing I can remember seeing because it clearly had too many strings to be an actual bass guitar and looked like a long stick. (It's apparently called a Chapman Stick and puzzled me all night.)

Unusual instrumentation aside, I was really looking forward to this set as I was more familiar with the HoJo hits. This was only in part due to sharing the exact same class schedule as Mary our junior year of high school when she would supplement her "Cure Fact of the Day" with a periodic "Howard Jones Fact of the Day!" I didn't recognize the opening song "Pearl in the Shell" (despite the fact that it apparently comes from his album Human's Lib which I had on cassette and is likely stuck in a box in storage.) This was soon followed by "I'd Like to Get to Know You Well" which is an excellent song to have early in the set. A fun point about midway through the set was when he covered "Too Shy" by Kajagoogoo which was written by the bass player with the weird looking Chapman Stick, and an easy sing along for the crowd at the chorus. (I am shocked it didn't get stuck in my head all night!)

"Too Shy" was followed by my personal favorite Howard Jones song -- "No One Is to Blame." I mentioned this being my favorite HoJo song to Mary a while ago and she was quite surprised I even had a favorite! It's just one of those songs that hit at the right place and time and still has a special place in my heart, so it was fantastic to hear it live.

His set wrapped up with "What Is Love?" and "Things Can Only Get Better" which he tied together nicely by referencing a line from the third verse of "What Is Love" -- "And maybe love is letting people be just what they want to be."

Another break to turn over the stage for Culture Club. Lora was a little perplexed when she didn't see things getting set up as we had between Berlin and Howard Jones. I pointed to the big black curtain hanging over part of the stage and reminded her that headline acts have their set prepared and hidden while the openers perform. (She doesn't go to concerts as much as some of my other friends.) A quick check of the phone to see when to anticipate Ana Gloria's concert call -- second song in, got it!

Boy George (or "Man George" as he later joked) and the band took the stage about 9:15 and opened with an excellent cover of "Sympathy for the Devil." They really had a good bluesy sound to them which surprised me somewhat since I generally put them in the reggae-influenced pop category. Covering the Rolling Stones was unexpected (checking out the set list not withstanding.)

Again, this was a set list I knew I would be relatively familiar with overall thanks to Ana Gloria's undying fandom back in high school. When we all turned 40, I put together some mix CDs as a gift for each of my friends. One of mixes included answers to 10 questions including "What song reminds you of [name]?" I had to laugh when I looked at the responses for Ana Gloria -- 3 responses "Karma Chameleon", 1 response "Love Is Love." So, we all associate AG with Culture Club, but none of us guessed "It's a Miracle" as her song of choice, which she got to listen to through a muddy mobile phone connection. 

Boy George sounded fantastic, though he was singing in a lower key than he was 40 years ago. And of course he looked stylish as always with a red hat jauntily atop his head and an interesting jacket. (And of course fabulous eye makeup!) Though I must say it was a bit weird seeing him with a goatee. It looked fine, just different!

"Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" was a definite highlight of the set as it was slowed down and more acoustic than the original. I did laugh at myself while standing up and dancing along -- I found myself dancing rather like Boy George did in the video. Quite unintentional! But the biggest highlight for me was towards the end of the set when "Church of the Poison Mind" turned into Wham!'s "I'm Your Man." I'd been up and down in my seat all night, but absolutely could not stay sitting for that. Wham! was my first concert back in 1986 and "I'm Your Man" was one of two new songs they performed that night. I was already in an '80s nostalgia mood, so that was just a perfect tie in for me.

The main set closed out with "Miss Me Blind" and then we had to wait a bit for the encore. Not terribly long, but longer than I typically expect. As I has suspected, Boy George had a bit of a wardrobe change and returned to the stage now sporting a yellow hat and black and yellow jacket. The band launched into a cover of "Bang a Gong" which was excellent and towards the end of the song both Terri Nunn and Howard Jones returned to the stage to sing along which was great fun. It turned out that last night was the last night of the tour with both HoJo and Berlin. (There are a couple of shows left in LA with just Berlin opening.)

Terri and Howard stayed on stage for the finale -- "Karma Chameleon" (naturally) and it was a fun way to end a trip back in time.

The show wrapped up a bit before 11:00, but with general exiting delays and stopping for some water, it was 12:45 when I dropped Lora and Barbara back at Barbara's house and headed for home. A late night before a work day AND one where I needed to be in the office made for a bit of rough Monday, but all in all a fantastic night out with good music and good friends.

Set Lists (courtesy of setlist.fm.)

Berlin

Masquerade
No More Words
The Metro
Animal
Transcendance
Take My Breath Away
She Sells Sanctuary (The Cult cover)
Sex (I'm a...)

Howard Jones

Pearl in the Shell
Like to Get to Know You Well
Everlasting Love
New Song
Too Shy (Kajagoogoo cover)
No One Is to Blame
Celebrate It Together
What Is Love?
Things Can Only Get Better 

Culture Club

Sympathy for the Devil (The Rolling Stones cover)
It's a Miracle
I'll Tumble 4 Ya
Melodrama
Everything I Own (Bread cover)
Let It Go
Do You Really Want To Hurt Me
Eyeliner Voodoo
Angel of Mercy
That's the Way (I'm Only Trying to Help You)
Church of the Poison Mind / I'm Your Man
Time (Clock of the Heart)
Miss Me Blind
 
Encore:
Get It On (T. Rex cover)
Karma Chameleon