Back at the Hall

This blog will sort of be off topic but two days ago my dad and I went to Portland, Oregon to see Howard Jones live for the very first time. Now the reason I'm talking about Howard Jones is because he performed at my favorite venue, the one that I always associate The Psychedelic Furs with... the Revolution Hall.

When I was a kid I remember listening to the cassette of Howard Jones' 1993 compilation The Best Of Howard Jones in the car. The songs I remembered hearing were "What Is Love?," "New Song," "Pearl In The Shell," a tiny bit of "Always Asking Questions" and "Hide And Seek," "Things Can Only Get Better," "Like To Get To Know You Well," "Life In One Day," "Everlasting Love," and the one that is the most nostalgic to me, "No One Is To Blame." Years later when I was a teenager I wanted to get into Howard's music so I bought that very same album on CD, and then later I got his other albums.

Howard Jones at Revolution Hall 6/30/19.

Seeing Howard Jones live was an incredible experience, and he was just so awesome. Plus he was extremely talented with his keyboards, and it was really interesting watching him play. Howard would interact with the crowd and told stories about some of his songs. My favorite song he did was definitely "No One Is To Blame" and it was just him on his electric piano. It was very reminiscent of the original version of that song from Howard's second album Dream Into Action (1985). The support bands were All Hail The Silence and Men Without Hats (the audience went wild for "Safety Dance") and they were good and fun to watch. What's cool was Howard Jones brought the members of both bands on stage with him to perform two of his songs.

My dad and I sat in the balcony and it was the very same spot from when I saw The Psychedelic Furs two years ago. And it was during that time when I threw my letter over the balcony and thought it didn't land on the stage. I might have seen the area where I met Rich Good the second time and him showing me he got my letter. I wish I had the time to go over there and take a closer look.

It was really nice seeing the Revolution Hall again and it was fantastic watching Howard Jones perform over there. But like I said earlier, I will always associate the Hall with The Psychedelic Furs because of those wonderful moments. Being at the Revolution Hall brought back so many memories and it will always mean a lot to me. I hope The Psychedelic Furs will come back to the Hall someday.

*All photos by me*