i'm only human
On August 15, 1998, after convincing my brother and our friend Randy to drive with me from Hays to Chicago, I saw The Human League live for the first time. It was the first time I had been to Chicago, the first time I saw one of my favorite bands live, and the first time I went to a concert by myself. It was one of those life changing experiences. Before that, I had just bought records, tapes and CD's of my favorite bands and hoped that I might catch their videos on MTV or see photos of them in Rolling Stone or some other magazine. With the Internet came the ability to find out even more about these bands, and when I found out that The Human League, a band I had been collecting records of since I was about 10, was going to be touring the US I just had to go. I've blogged about this journey previously so I won't go into details about it again.
Before the past weekend, I had seen the band five times since then. August 17, 2003 at House of Blues in West Hollywood, CA (almost 5 years after the first time). August 22, 2003 at the Canyon Club in Agoura Hills, CA. December 9, 2003 at Sheffield City Hall in Sheffield, UK. September 23, 2006 at the Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood, CA. August 5, 2008 at Gibson Amphitheater, Universal City, CA.
The Viejas contingent: Me, Dylan, Nathan and Marc. Nathan was an HL virgin!
"Credo," The Human League's 9th album was released earlier this year and I've been anxiously awaiting their US tour dates knowing that I would finally get to hear some new songs alongside the old ones which are, at this point, like old friends. Being an insane, obsessed fan, I decided I had to try to see as many of these shows as I could, knowing it might be the last chance to see the band, at least with this lineup.
Phil working the mic at Viejas Casino, the opening night of their Credo 2011 Tour.
(Photo by Marc Loren)
The first show of this tour was at Viejas Casino in Alpine, CA, which is about 30 miles east of San Diego. Dylan, Marc and Nathan accompanied me on this trip and we left LA as soon as we could after I left work on Thursday early at 2pm. We didn't actually get on the road til about 4pm and the traffic was horrible. I had been dreaming of getting to the campground early, setting up the tent, having a refreshing dip in the pool, taking a shower and getting dressed up all nice for the show. The reality came crashing down that when we finally made it through the traffic and found the campground (no easy task) we had no time for any of that. In fact, the campground was closed, no one was working, the gate was shut, and the emergency phone number listed on the office was not in service. After finally calling the Casino (the entire place is on an Indian Reservation so I was figuring they could help - sidebar, why is it still "ok" to say "Indian Reservation" and "Indian Casino"? You never hear anyone call it a Native American Reservation or a Native American Casino) Security came and informed me that the campground office closes at 6pm and he had no way of knowing if I had a reservation or if my card had been charged, which spot was mine, or any way of helping me at all. He recommended an expensive hotel nearby. After a circuitous conversation which involved me having to repeat everything at least twice, he finally alluded that it would be OK for us to pitch our tents at one of the campsites outside of the gated portion of the campground and then pay in the morning. Which had been our first question but for some reason he couldn't seem to answer it when I first asked. By this point, we had about 10 minutes before showtime so we decided to just drive to the casino and deal with the tents later.
Taking a wrong turn somehow, we ended up on a road that seemed to be going towards the casino but then quickly veered off so that it was going away from it, further and further. Eventually the road curved around again and took us back to the highway we had driven in on earlier so we drove back the other way towards the casino again. Once we got there, we flung open the trunk and changed our clothes in the parking lot of the casino! Somehow in this process I actually lost my printed receipt of the tickets.
We quickly walked into the casino and not even messing around, I asked the first person I see who appeared to be working where the venue was. We found it pretty easily but could hear Men Without Hats already playing which was a bummer. Marc said "they're playing my favorite song," which is dubious since Marc has like a million favorite songs.
I found the will-call table and got our tickets and we headed inside. Men Without Hats, which is actually just the original singer and a band of new musicians, were pretty good. I didn't know many of their songs before but since we started planning for the concert, Marc had burned me a CD so I knew most of the songs they played. I really enjoyed the female keyboardist/singer and her look, she reminded me of Dolly Dagger a little.
The crowd was kind of sparse, and the people who were up front were claiming to be "huge Human League fans." But when we asked them what they thought of "Credo," they had no idea that there was a new album out. In truth, I don't think they even knew about the previous album, "Secrets" and probably not the two before those. Most of these people remembered Human League as the band who sang "Don't You Want Me," "Fascination," and "Human." One lady told me she thought it was "cute" that the band had "new fans" like me who knew the new stuff. I tried explaining to her that I wasn't a new fan, that I had been a fan since I could remember and that I was in fact 34 years old (she kept talking to me like I was a teenager).
Regardless, I had an amazing time! It was such a thrill when Phil, Susan and Joanne walked out onstage with Nic, Neil, Rob and Beevers. The show was great and they did a really long set with three new songs, "Never Let Me Go," "Egomaniac" (which sounded way better than I was expecting) and "Night People," which is an epic masterpiece live. So much better seeing these songs live than watching cell phone videos on YouTube.
My one moment of interaction (Human League, especially the ladies, are notorious for being robotic and not directly interacting with the audience, it's part of their "thing") was when they started "Night People" and I held up my vinyl copy of "Credo" for Phil to see, and he smiled and gave me a thumbs up which made the whole thing worthwhile.
After the show, I bought a t-shirt at the merch booth as me and a girl were both trying to find out if the band was going to come out and talk with the fans at all. We ended up waiting around (much to Dylan's chagrin) until finally a girl came out and said the band would not be coming out as they had to get up early in the morning, but that she would try to get our items signed. So I gave her my "Credo" vinyl and eventually she returned with it signed by Phil, Joanne and Susan (I would have had all the band members sign it, but oh well).
Dylan with our guard dog "Sam."
After the show we were all starving since none of us had eaten since long before we left LA earlier that day (Dylan hadn't eaten at all). Unfortunately, there were no restaurants open in the casino that late. What?!? We asked if there was anything nearby, to which no one who worked there seemed to have an answer. We decided just to drive back towards Alpine and San Diego and luckily we found a Carl's Jr. right by the hotel where the Human League were staying at (one of the "big fans" had found out from his buddy who works at the hotel.) We weren't up for stalking them, though.
We made it back to the campground around 1am and set up our tents by the headlights of my car. Once we did that, we hung out and relaxed and a friendly German Shepherd came over to us to get acquainted and to let us know he would be guarding us for the evening. Every once in awhile he would run over towards the hills and bark at some unseen presence in the distance.
After we retired to our tents, "Sam" (as we nicknamed the dog, a reference to True Blood's shape-shifting bartender, Sam Merlotte) would make his rounds and bark at the hills occasionally. I felt a little uneasy about sleeping out in the wilderness, outside of the gated campground, without actually having determined whether or not we were technically "allowed" to be there, but then I would see Sam's shadow as he would walk between our tents and I would feel safe and sound enough to sleep for a little while before waking up and going through it all over again.
Sleepyheads. In the tent at Ma-Tar-Awa campground on the Viejas Native American Reservation. (Photo by Marc Loren)
In the morning, we got up and I went to pay for the campground so we could use the pool and the showers. It turned out, there was no showers, only port-a-potties. So we didn't really miss anything by being at one of the outer campsites. We swam and lounged around for awhile until we were ready for breakfast.
We headed in to the outlet shops across the road from the casino where I had a very successful shopping spree at Rue 21. Then Dylan and I ate Subway (Marc and Nathan had already ate while we shopped) and then we were back on the road to LA!
Me geeking out in front of the marquee at the Hollywood Bowl. Yes, Human League got top billing for the second time at the Bowl (last time was in 2006).
We got back to LA just in time to relax for about an hour before Marc came to pick us up to go to the Hollywood Bowl. We picked up a couple bottles of wine on the way and met a bunch of our friends out front in the picnic area. I ended up drinking most of the two bottles of wine myself and missed the first few songs of Berlin's set, but I have seen them live quite a few times so I wasn't in a huge hurry. I made it in to hear the last few songs.
After them The Fixx played, and I am a huge fan of their songs "Red Skies" and "Saved by Zero" so it was great hearing those.
Just part of our Hollywood Bowl contingent. By some stroke of luck, we ended up sharing our row with most of our best friends who had also bought tickets. Out of 18,000 seats we all ended up sitting together by some fluke - there were three groups of us who bought our tickets separately with no coordination! Couldn't have made that happen if we had tried!
I have to say our seats were back way farther than I thought they would be. Marc bought the tickets and we spent what I thought was a decent amount of money on them, but they were still way back in the benches section. Even the jumbotrons looked small from where we were.
The B-52's were next and their set was awesome, although by this time I had also gotten a huge can of Sapporo and I really don't remember all that much about what songs they played or didn't play, but I do know I was up dancing and singing along to all of them.
Finally, the moment came for The Human League to come out on stage and the set was very similar to the night before but with a lot of the songs dropped for time.
There was a big group of girls behind us, who again purported to be "huge fans" of the Human League, but again had no idea that they had a new album out. By this point I was pretty drunk, and the girls seemed to be drunk too. I felt like I should just ignore them or a fight would break out, and one of them did make a stupid comment to Dylan that "if you don't know this song, you're just lame" just because Dylan sat down to rest during a song that of course he knew very well. The girls of course only knew the big 80's hits and sat down during the newer songs and seemed annoyed that we were standing up dancing, but whatever. I wasn't gonna sit down for them. After the show, I just remember trying to get the heck out of there so we could get Wendy's and go home to sleep. Apparently, I asked Dylan to go to the car and get the pillows that were left from the camping trip and by the time he came back I was already asleep in bed.
Human League on stage at the Hollywood Bowl, in front of 18,000 fans - the show was sold out! (Photo by Marc Loren)
We didn't wake up until about noon the next day. I got up, made hot tea, eggs and pancakes, and Dylan asked me if I was up for going to Vegas. At this point I felt rested so I said "sure." We re-packed our bags and got in his car this time and headed out. Surprisingly we didn't hit any real traffic and made it to Vegas in less than 4 hours, stopping at Baker for gas and snacks.
Our friend Bernie was staying at Boulder Station and had offered to share her room with us (earlier she thought she could get us a comped room but that ended up not happening). We went down to the Grand Cafe in the casino for some dinner and then went to her friend Danny's house so we could go swimming. Then we went back to the casino and did some slots before bedtime.
We slept in late again and then went down for some more slots and an all-you-can-eat taco special in the casino's Mexican restaurant. Then Dylan and I went to the strip and pretty soon it was time for me to go to the concert at Mandalay Bay.
Getting to the concert by myself and standing there for an hour before the show was a little bit of a sobering affair. I thought things like "did I really need to come all the way to Vegas for a third show?" and "isn't this a bit obsessive?" and "oh lord what am I doing here?" I was low on energy and feeling a little lonely although not enough to try to talk to the people around me. I didn't recognize anyone else there, and the only people wearing band shirts were B-52's fans, I didn't see any HL shirts in the crowd.
This time, Human League were on before the B-52's, so as soon as they came out on stage my mood immediately changed and I thought "YES, I am so glad I am here!" It was a longer set than the bowl, but not as long as Viejas. Three songs had been dropped from the Viejas set. But the band looked like they were having so much fun, and it was great standing in the water and looking up at the stage, and I was in the front row.
Dylan and Marc in the new "Credo" Human League T-shirts (Dylan is actually wearing mine).
A cute new thing Susan and Joanne do during the encore, "Together in Electric Dreams," where they dance towards each other and sing while they look right into each other's faces. Meanwhile, Phil and Nic do the same thing and both sing into Phil's mic. (Photo by Marc Loren)
Anyway, I ended the night very happy with the show and luckily Dylan was there at the gate waiting for me when I left, which was a surprise because my phone was about to die so I had shut it off during the show to save what precious little battery I had left to call him after the show and try to figure out where and when he would pick me up.
That night I went and had a buffalo chicken sandwich in the casino cafe and sat at the counter by myself, which seemed like such a thing that I would have thought was extraordinarily cool back when I was in 8th grade. Dylan was beat and had already gone to bed but I wanted to gamble a little more. I started with $5 that night and ended with $11.25 and decided that was just as good as it was gonna be and it was time to go to sleep before having to drive back to LA through holiday traffic in the morning.
Marc in front of one of the billboards for the Hollywood Bowl show.
Before the past weekend, I had seen the band five times since then. August 17, 2003 at House of Blues in West Hollywood, CA (almost 5 years after the first time). August 22, 2003 at the Canyon Club in Agoura Hills, CA. December 9, 2003 at Sheffield City Hall in Sheffield, UK. September 23, 2006 at the Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood, CA. August 5, 2008 at Gibson Amphitheater, Universal City, CA.
That last time, in August of 2008, I almost decided against seeing them because they hadn't released a new album in 7 years and I thought maybe I should save my money instead of watching them perform the same songs I'd seen many times before. Of course, I'm glad I didn't because to me, seeing these songs performed live takes me away to another place and leaves me feeling peaceful, ecstatic, and happy when I return to real life. It's probably the same way that religious people feel after they hear a good church sermon.
The Viejas contingent: Me, Dylan, Nathan and Marc. Nathan was an HL virgin!"Credo," The Human League's 9th album was released earlier this year and I've been anxiously awaiting their US tour dates knowing that I would finally get to hear some new songs alongside the old ones which are, at this point, like old friends. Being an insane, obsessed fan, I decided I had to try to see as many of these shows as I could, knowing it might be the last chance to see the band, at least with this lineup.
Phil working the mic at Viejas Casino, the opening night of their Credo 2011 Tour.(Photo by Marc Loren)
The first show of this tour was at Viejas Casino in Alpine, CA, which is about 30 miles east of San Diego. Dylan, Marc and Nathan accompanied me on this trip and we left LA as soon as we could after I left work on Thursday early at 2pm. We didn't actually get on the road til about 4pm and the traffic was horrible. I had been dreaming of getting to the campground early, setting up the tent, having a refreshing dip in the pool, taking a shower and getting dressed up all nice for the show. The reality came crashing down that when we finally made it through the traffic and found the campground (no easy task) we had no time for any of that. In fact, the campground was closed, no one was working, the gate was shut, and the emergency phone number listed on the office was not in service. After finally calling the Casino (the entire place is on an Indian Reservation so I was figuring they could help - sidebar, why is it still "ok" to say "Indian Reservation" and "Indian Casino"? You never hear anyone call it a Native American Reservation or a Native American Casino) Security came and informed me that the campground office closes at 6pm and he had no way of knowing if I had a reservation or if my card had been charged, which spot was mine, or any way of helping me at all. He recommended an expensive hotel nearby. After a circuitous conversation which involved me having to repeat everything at least twice, he finally alluded that it would be OK for us to pitch our tents at one of the campsites outside of the gated portion of the campground and then pay in the morning. Which had been our first question but for some reason he couldn't seem to answer it when I first asked. By this point, we had about 10 minutes before showtime so we decided to just drive to the casino and deal with the tents later.
Taking a wrong turn somehow, we ended up on a road that seemed to be going towards the casino but then quickly veered off so that it was going away from it, further and further. Eventually the road curved around again and took us back to the highway we had driven in on earlier so we drove back the other way towards the casino again. Once we got there, we flung open the trunk and changed our clothes in the parking lot of the casino! Somehow in this process I actually lost my printed receipt of the tickets.
We quickly walked into the casino and not even messing around, I asked the first person I see who appeared to be working where the venue was. We found it pretty easily but could hear Men Without Hats already playing which was a bummer. Marc said "they're playing my favorite song," which is dubious since Marc has like a million favorite songs.
I found the will-call table and got our tickets and we headed inside. Men Without Hats, which is actually just the original singer and a band of new musicians, were pretty good. I didn't know many of their songs before but since we started planning for the concert, Marc had burned me a CD so I knew most of the songs they played. I really enjoyed the female keyboardist/singer and her look, she reminded me of Dolly Dagger a little.
The crowd was kind of sparse, and the people who were up front were claiming to be "huge Human League fans." But when we asked them what they thought of "Credo," they had no idea that there was a new album out. In truth, I don't think they even knew about the previous album, "Secrets" and probably not the two before those. Most of these people remembered Human League as the band who sang "Don't You Want Me," "Fascination," and "Human." One lady told me she thought it was "cute" that the band had "new fans" like me who knew the new stuff. I tried explaining to her that I wasn't a new fan, that I had been a fan since I could remember and that I was in fact 34 years old (she kept talking to me like I was a teenager).
Regardless, I had an amazing time! It was such a thrill when Phil, Susan and Joanne walked out onstage with Nic, Neil, Rob and Beevers. The show was great and they did a really long set with three new songs, "Never Let Me Go," "Egomaniac" (which sounded way better than I was expecting) and "Night People," which is an epic masterpiece live. So much better seeing these songs live than watching cell phone videos on YouTube.
My one moment of interaction (Human League, especially the ladies, are notorious for being robotic and not directly interacting with the audience, it's part of their "thing") was when they started "Night People" and I held up my vinyl copy of "Credo" for Phil to see, and he smiled and gave me a thumbs up which made the whole thing worthwhile.
After the show, I bought a t-shirt at the merch booth as me and a girl were both trying to find out if the band was going to come out and talk with the fans at all. We ended up waiting around (much to Dylan's chagrin) until finally a girl came out and said the band would not be coming out as they had to get up early in the morning, but that she would try to get our items signed. So I gave her my "Credo" vinyl and eventually she returned with it signed by Phil, Joanne and Susan (I would have had all the band members sign it, but oh well).
Dylan with our guard dog "Sam." After the show we were all starving since none of us had eaten since long before we left LA earlier that day (Dylan hadn't eaten at all). Unfortunately, there were no restaurants open in the casino that late. What?!? We asked if there was anything nearby, to which no one who worked there seemed to have an answer. We decided just to drive back towards Alpine and San Diego and luckily we found a Carl's Jr. right by the hotel where the Human League were staying at (one of the "big fans" had found out from his buddy who works at the hotel.) We weren't up for stalking them, though.
We made it back to the campground around 1am and set up our tents by the headlights of my car. Once we did that, we hung out and relaxed and a friendly German Shepherd came over to us to get acquainted and to let us know he would be guarding us for the evening. Every once in awhile he would run over towards the hills and bark at some unseen presence in the distance.
After we retired to our tents, "Sam" (as we nicknamed the dog, a reference to True Blood's shape-shifting bartender, Sam Merlotte) would make his rounds and bark at the hills occasionally. I felt a little uneasy about sleeping out in the wilderness, outside of the gated campground, without actually having determined whether or not we were technically "allowed" to be there, but then I would see Sam's shadow as he would walk between our tents and I would feel safe and sound enough to sleep for a little while before waking up and going through it all over again.
Sleepyheads. In the tent at Ma-Tar-Awa campground on the Viejas Native American Reservation. (Photo by Marc Loren)In the morning, we got up and I went to pay for the campground so we could use the pool and the showers. It turned out, there was no showers, only port-a-potties. So we didn't really miss anything by being at one of the outer campsites. We swam and lounged around for awhile until we were ready for breakfast.
We headed in to the outlet shops across the road from the casino where I had a very successful shopping spree at Rue 21. Then Dylan and I ate Subway (Marc and Nathan had already ate while we shopped) and then we were back on the road to LA!
Me geeking out in front of the marquee at the Hollywood Bowl. Yes, Human League got top billing for the second time at the Bowl (last time was in 2006).We got back to LA just in time to relax for about an hour before Marc came to pick us up to go to the Hollywood Bowl. We picked up a couple bottles of wine on the way and met a bunch of our friends out front in the picnic area. I ended up drinking most of the two bottles of wine myself and missed the first few songs of Berlin's set, but I have seen them live quite a few times so I wasn't in a huge hurry. I made it in to hear the last few songs.
After them The Fixx played, and I am a huge fan of their songs "Red Skies" and "Saved by Zero" so it was great hearing those.
Just part of our Hollywood Bowl contingent. By some stroke of luck, we ended up sharing our row with most of our best friends who had also bought tickets. Out of 18,000 seats we all ended up sitting together by some fluke - there were three groups of us who bought our tickets separately with no coordination! Couldn't have made that happen if we had tried!The B-52's were next and their set was awesome, although by this time I had also gotten a huge can of Sapporo and I really don't remember all that much about what songs they played or didn't play, but I do know I was up dancing and singing along to all of them.
Finally, the moment came for The Human League to come out on stage and the set was very similar to the night before but with a lot of the songs dropped for time.
There was a big group of girls behind us, who again purported to be "huge fans" of the Human League, but again had no idea that they had a new album out. By this point I was pretty drunk, and the girls seemed to be drunk too. I felt like I should just ignore them or a fight would break out, and one of them did make a stupid comment to Dylan that "if you don't know this song, you're just lame" just because Dylan sat down to rest during a song that of course he knew very well. The girls of course only knew the big 80's hits and sat down during the newer songs and seemed annoyed that we were standing up dancing, but whatever. I wasn't gonna sit down for them. After the show, I just remember trying to get the heck out of there so we could get Wendy's and go home to sleep. Apparently, I asked Dylan to go to the car and get the pillows that were left from the camping trip and by the time he came back I was already asleep in bed.
Human League on stage at the Hollywood Bowl, in front of 18,000 fans - the show was sold out! (Photo by Marc Loren)Our friend Bernie was staying at Boulder Station and had offered to share her room with us (earlier she thought she could get us a comped room but that ended up not happening). We went down to the Grand Cafe in the casino for some dinner and then went to her friend Danny's house so we could go swimming. Then we went back to the casino and did some slots before bedtime.
We slept in late again and then went down for some more slots and an all-you-can-eat taco special in the casino's Mexican restaurant. Then Dylan and I went to the strip and pretty soon it was time for me to go to the concert at Mandalay Bay.
Getting to the concert by myself and standing there for an hour before the show was a little bit of a sobering affair. I thought things like "did I really need to come all the way to Vegas for a third show?" and "isn't this a bit obsessive?" and "oh lord what am I doing here?" I was low on energy and feeling a little lonely although not enough to try to talk to the people around me. I didn't recognize anyone else there, and the only people wearing band shirts were B-52's fans, I didn't see any HL shirts in the crowd.
This time, Human League were on before the B-52's, so as soon as they came out on stage my mood immediately changed and I thought "YES, I am so glad I am here!" It was a longer set than the bowl, but not as long as Viejas. Three songs had been dropped from the Viejas set. But the band looked like they were having so much fun, and it was great standing in the water and looking up at the stage, and I was in the front row.
Dylan and Marc in the new "Credo" Human League T-shirts (Dylan is actually wearing mine).The B-52's show was actually just as amazing. It's sort of strange how full circle it was for me. I was first in love with The Human League after buying their Greatest Hits LP (from Columbia House music club - back when they mailed 12" vinyl records!) and then borrowed their album "Crash" on cassette tape from my friend Angie Dewey. In 1989, I discovered the B-52's due to their music video "Channel Z" being played a lot on MTV. In 1990, Human League's "Heart Like A Wheel" hit the billboard top 40 and their album "Romantic?" was released around the same time. This was my 8th grade year, which I've always regarded as one of the best years of my life, and those two albums were such a huge part of that year, as were the other albums by both bands even though they were older, I was just going back and finding and connecting with them.
A cute new thing Susan and Joanne do during the encore, "Together in Electric Dreams," where they dance towards each other and sing while they look right into each other's faces. Meanwhile, Phil and Nic do the same thing and both sing into Phil's mic. (Photo by Marc Loren)Anyway, I ended the night very happy with the show and luckily Dylan was there at the gate waiting for me when I left, which was a surprise because my phone was about to die so I had shut it off during the show to save what precious little battery I had left to call him after the show and try to figure out where and when he would pick me up.
That night I went and had a buffalo chicken sandwich in the casino cafe and sat at the counter by myself, which seemed like such a thing that I would have thought was extraordinarily cool back when I was in 8th grade. Dylan was beat and had already gone to bed but I wanted to gamble a little more. I started with $5 that night and ended with $11.25 and decided that was just as good as it was gonna be and it was time to go to sleep before having to drive back to LA through holiday traffic in the morning.
Marc in front of one of the billboards for the Hollywood Bowl show.
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