DARKER WAVES FESTIVAL 2023

Highlights from the bands I saw at the Darker Waves Festival at Huntington Beach Ca 11/18/2023.

Updated 12/13/23:
I put this on Youtube to share with family and friends. I am surprised to see so many views. I need to clarify a few things. Being old, fat and with sciatica took a toll on me that day. The bands that are all older than me had more pep in their step. OMD just totally surprised me and I am now a new fan all over again. There were audio issues with some of the shows where the mics were not on. The worst was probably with The English Beat. I did see all the shows on their stages that I filmed except for The B-52's that was being broadcast on the New Order stage and Tears For Fears. I had just seen The B-52's in Las Vegas 2 months before, so to not miss New Order we went to that stage and I filmed the screen. After New Order I just didn't have the energy or strength to fight the 25-30K crowd that rushed to the Tears For Fears stage about a 1/4 of a mile walk on the sand. I knew I wouldn't get a good spot, so I stayed at the New Order stage and watched Tears For Fears being broadcast live. So that is why there are no bands on the stage for B-52's and Tears for Fears. So Tears for Fears was packed just like New Order was. I have seen Tears for Fears twice before and wish I could have made it to their stage to see them a third time. The songs from The Hurting album are my favorite, and was my first vinyl record I ever bought. The original cover too with them and their bangs and ponytails at the lake. This was my 4th time seeing New Order, which is hard to do in the USA since they don't do a lot of shows here like everywhere else, so I had to see them. When they started with Regret, it was so powerful, I felt like I was a young man again, and for a brief time my pain was gone. But by the time they played Love Will Tear Us Apart, I could barely stand and so laying on the beach watching Tears For Fears was all I could do.

The sound:
What you hear on the video is not even close to the true sound. I was using a new DJI Pocket 3 camera to record the video and sound. Since I was there and can remember the true sound and how it felt, I can easily bypass the poor sound quality of the recording when I watch it. I can understand if you were not there and just watching this that you would think the sound was horrible. Every concert I film with my Iphone or this DJI Pocket, I am always unimpressed with the sound quality of the recording. If you watch my Pet Shop Boys video when they played at what was called the Microsoft Theater for the Super tour, that is probably the best audio I had. So the bands sounded great, but my recordings do not do them justice.

Thanks for watching!