On The Road: Human League

This is a new feature on my blog, where I will tell the stories about my experiences attending live concerts by my favorite bands.  Having just seen the Human League on the Regeneration Tour earlier this week, which was my 6th time seeing them, I thought I would recall my first encounter with the mighty League - which incidentally was not only my first music-related "pilgrimage" but also the first time I really saw a concert by one of my favorite bands.

Human League wasn't my first favorite band (that honor goes to the Thompson Twins) but they have been the most enduring group in my record collection (or iTunes library as it goes these days) since my tweens.  I remember first borrowing their album "Crash" on cassette tape from my friend, Angie Dewey, and ultimately collecting every single one of their albums - many on various formats - over the years and up to this very day.  

It wasn't until 1998 (August 15th to be exact, thank you internet!) that I finally saw The Human League live in concert, and it was actually the first big concert by one of my favorite bands that I ever went to.  I had seen some other concerts in my life, but due to the fact that I grew up in rural western Kansas, I was limited to the shows that would come to Hays, usually those at the Ellis County Free Fair that my parents would take me to.  

In the summer of 1998 I was working at Days Inn and I was getting to be rather proficient with the internet, which at the time was pretty newfangled.  Through some website or another I discovered that Phil and the girls were going on the "Big Rewind Tour" which also included Culture Club (another favorite of mine) and Howard Jones.  I had been a big fan of "Octopus", the Human League's 1995 album which spawned the hits "Tell Me When" - which even received airplay on KJLS - and "One Man in My Heart".  So although the closest tour date was Chicago I decided I must go.  Luckily, as an employee of Days Inn, I was entitled to $25 rates at participating locations across the country and used the computer at work to book the nights I would need in Columbia, MO; Vandalia IL; Chicago; and lastly, Des Moines, IA.  My brother was excited to join me as I had bought two tickets - thinking it would be lame to only by one.  We had never been east of Kansas City and a big city like Chicago seemed so far away and amazing.  At the last minute, our friend Randy who was experiencing some troubles with the law, decided he wanted to take the opportunity to get out of town for a few days and said he would come along.  My cousin Andrea was also supposed to join us but backed out the morning we were set to leave.  So, the three of us piled into Brandon's tiny, purple Mazda MX-7 and headed east.

The first night, we stopped in Columbia MO and I really wanted to use the freedom of being out of Hays to explore whatever gay nightlife I could find.  Through the yellow pages, I learned of a bar called "Styx", which turned out to be an appropriate name upon arriving - it was out in the boonies hidden in a bunch of trees!  I had only been to one gay bar in my life before that, with my first boyfriend, Dustin, so I was terrified of going in alone but I made myself do it.  It was Karaoke night so it was a good thing I was of legal drinking age because I don't know what I would have done otherwise.  As it happened, I had a few drinks and met a nice table of lesbians and one confused "straight" girl, who ended up singing "Love Shack" and "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" with me.  Looking back, it all seems like something out of a movie on LOGO.

The next day, we drove to St. Louis, a city I still have fond memories of.  We shopped at a mall and some record shops and drove by the arch.  Then we got back in the car and drove until we got to Vandalia IL which we joked looked like something out of Children of the Corn as we approached the small town through a rural detour.  Tired from the night before, and realizing there wouldn't be anything more interesting going on in this town than back home, we called it a night after getting into the hotel room.

The next day was the big day!  The drive was fairly short as we made our way up through the state of Illinois and into the metropolis of Chicago.  We immediately found our way downtown where we basked in the shadows of the skyscrapers and sought out a place to have an "authentic" Chicago style pizza.  We were a bit disappointed to learn that the only difference between our pizza and Chicago's was that they used pieces of "real" bacon (not Canadian).  I was pretty stoked, though, when I heard the waiters talking about the Big Rewind concert that night and how it was a big deal.

Since I only had two tickets, I let Brandon off the hook so he and Randy could explore Chicago, so they dropped me off near the arena.  The funniest thing I remember about that is how we pulled up in a parking lot across the street just as a jeep of four manly looking men pulled up next to us.  Randy said something to the effect of "I hope those guys don't think we're some fags going to see Culture Club" when suddenly the guys got out of their jeep and started holding hands with each other.  I guess he never though that gays could have muscles and drive jeeps.

My seat was pretty far from the stage but I was happy nonetheless.  The opener was Howard Jones, and I was actually surprised by how many of his songs I knew.  After he finished, the big moment was coming: the Human League were about to take the stage.

In retrospect, this concert was a big eye opener for me in many ways.  First, I never really knew which Human League songs were considered big "hits".  I knew the ones that were played on the radio, but I never distinguished any of them as being more popular than another.  I had never realized that "Don't You Want Me" was such a massive, globe-spanning cultural phenomenon.  Also, I had just never seen any of my favorite bands or singers live before.  Lastly, I didn't know anybody who really knew much about the Human League, let alone had any interest in them.  So it was such an amazing feeling to be in a huge arena filled with people who were just as excited (or at least almost as excited) as I was to be there.

to be continued...