Depeche Mode: The global spirit tour

After a brief break in the action, I got back into the concert game. Tonight, I saw Depeche Mode at Madison Square Garden. It was four years in the making but it was worth the wait.

But my first taste of DM’s music goes back a bit further. One particular day in high school, I happened to see the video for their song, “Dream On” from the 2001 album, Exciter. The chorus of the song, “can you feel, a little love, dream on, dream on” got stuck in my head. But it wasn’t until college when they reemerged in my view. 

One of the many perks of being a student at John Jay was that Lincoln Center was a short walk uptown. And in that same area, you would find Tower Records. I practically lived there for my college years. At the front of the store were the $10 CDs as everything else was quite expensive. One said CD, was DM’s 1990 album, “Violator”. I played it over and over again for a while after the purchase until ” Enjoy The Silence ” became my favorite song of theirs. But I had also heard of their documentary “101” and wanted to see them live after seeing the concert videos. 

After 2005’s “Playing The Angel” got their song “Precious” stuck in my head, they faded from view. That was until the “Delta Machine ” tour in 2013 and the misses that followed. I applied for tickets to their Live on Letterman show but I wasn’t chosen. By the time the tour arrived here that September, both shows in Brooklyn and Jones Beach were sold out. It looked like this one would stay on the list of acts to be seen. 

Flash forward to earlier this year. When the album “Spirit” was released in March, the dates for the North American leg of the tour were too. In March, I was ready to cross this act off my list and I did. I ended up at tonight’s show as Saturday night was already sold out. But I was going and that’s all that mattered to me. I had to see the work day out first.I would do just that and I was on my way to Manhattan. 

After dinner coupled with a glass of prosecco, I walked to MSG. I could spot the various styles of t-shirts and I knew I was in the right place. Unlike most of the other concerts I’d been to at MSG, I breezed through security. The opening act for the night was the band, Warpaint from Los Angeles. Their sound reminds me of the band Silversun Pickups, if fronted by a woman instead of a man. For the fact that the set was only 30 minutes long, they crammed quite a bit of hooks into that time on stage. 

A little after 8:45PM, the sound of The Beatles “Revolution” rang out, and out came DM. The opening song was “Going Backwards” from the album, Spirit. The album would feature four more times as the night went on. The set list itself was a mixed bag with the coup d’grace saved for the last four songs of the set. In succession, you had “Everything Counts”, replete with the crowd extending the chorus of the song as was done in 101,” Black Celebration “, my favorite song ” Enjoy The Silence” and Never Let Me Down Again “, with front man Dave Gahan leading the sea of arms aloft. The encore was five songs, which started with guitarist Martin Gore taking the mic for an acoustic version of the song, ” Strangelove”. The last three songs were a cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes”, dedicated to the heroes of 9/11, “I Feel You” from the album, “Songs of Faith and Devotion, before returng to Violator and arguably their biggest hit ” Personal Jesus” to bring the night to its end. It was an exhilarating 2 hours and 15 minutes. With the empire state building draped in the stars and stripes, I went gently into the good night. I was reminded yet again of the positive powers that live music can bring.Darkness never sounded as sexy as it did tonight.

For the moment, this is my last concert of the year. It wouldn’t surprise me if something turns up before the year ends. But as tonight becomes part of  history, something greater this way comes. In three weeks time, the Emerald Isle awaits. Then in December, cruising through the southern Caribbean the week following my 32nd birthday with my sister. Between those points, Summer turns to Autumn with a lot of the story that is 2017 still to be written!