Depeche Mode | Molson Amphitheatre | 2009 07 24

Well, of course the concert was simply bloody amazing. All that I expected and ever hoped for, utterly no disappointment whatsoever! All of us had an amazing time that’s for sure. I screamed and jumped around like mad and sang out the words to all of the songs loudly. It was insane. As I’ve not got much time right now, I’ll leave you with a review of the show from the Toronto Sun. An update very soon.

Depeche Mode’s Gahan Thrills Fans

By JANE STEVENSON, Sun Media 25th July 2009, 5:09pm

Veteran British electro-dance-pop outfit Depeche Mode kicked off the North American leg of their so-called Tour Of The Universe in Toronto on Friday night at the Molson Amphitheatre with frontman Dave Gahan looking no worse the wear.

Gahan, you may recall, had a health scare back in May when he had a low-grade malignant tumor removed from his bladder, leading to the postponment of six European dates that were eventually rescheduled.

And just earlier this month, he also injured his leg on stage at a gig in Spain.

But if Gahan is feeling the effects of his recent health woes, he sure didn’t show it on Friday night in front of a sold-out crowd as he gleefully performed his trademark dance moves that included some sexy hip-wiggling, shaking his backside at the audience and twirling around with his mic stand high in the air.

Yes, Gahan looked skinny, but when doesn’t he, and his deep voice was clear and strong over the course of a 22-song show that stretched over two hours.

The group, which included founding members Martin Gore on guitar-keyboards and a sunglasses-wearing Andrew Fletcher on keyboards, played on an eye-catching stage dominated by a large LED video screen and matching circular ball screen hanging above the group.

Gore also looked sharp in a shiny silver sequin suit.

Unfortunately, it took a while for Depeche Mode to find their groove as they trotted out the obligatory new material from their latest album, Sounds Of The Universe, including the rather somber In Chains and Wrong, and the slightly more upbeat, Hole To Feed.

The audience, however, seemed thrilled just to have Gahan, in particular, in their presence and were on their feet immediately, cheering whenever he took off an article of clothing or was in exceptionally good dance form.

And when the hits finally kicked in – this is a group who have sold 100 million albums worldwide since their formation in 1980 – with Walking In My Shoes, which featured a backdrop of a crow on the video screen with a large eyeball projected on the ball above – the crowd couldn’t be contained as they happily sang, danced and clapped along.

A string of crowdpleasers, It’s No Good, A Question Of Time, and Precious – the latter from 2005′s Playing The Angel – were interrupted by another buzz kill song, Fly On the Windscreen, followed by Gore taking over on lead vocals for two back-to-back ballads, the new song Little Soul and Home (maybe to give Gahan a break), although Gahan eventually returned for two more unmemorable new song from Songs Of The Universe, Come Back and Fragile Tension.

The thing about Depeche Mode songs when they’re good, they’re great, but when they’re bad, they seem to go on forever.

Thankfully, the second half of the show really kicked into high gear, beginning with the dramatic I Feel You, followed by the dance-happy Policy Of Truth, Enjoy The Silence – featuring Gahan, Gore and Fletcher as stoned-faced astronauts in a video – Never Let Me Down Again and an encore that brimmed with some kinky material like Master And Servant, Strangelove (featuring a video in which a young Asian woman sucked the toe of a young redheaded woman who eventually explosed her breasts), and the mother of all Depeche Mode songs, Personal Jesus.

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***1/2 (3.5 out of five)

Depeche Mode

Molson Amphitheatre

Friday night

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SET LIST

In Chains

Wrong

Hole To Feed

Walking In My Shoes

It’s No Good

A Question Of Time

Precious

Fly On the Windscreen

Little Soul

Home

Come Back

Fragile Tension

In Your Room

I Feel You

Policy Of Truth

Enjoy The Silence

Never Let Me Down Again

FIRST ENCORE

Stripped

Master And Servant

Stangelove

SECOND ENCORE

Personal Jesus

Waiting For The Night

Never Let Me Down Again

In less than 24 hours, I will be swaying to the beats of one of my all time favourite bands – Depeche Mode. At times it seems as if it has taken a lifetime to get here – the moment I heard Just Can’t Get Enough when I was seventeen, way back in 1981 I was hooked. I’ve remained hooked until this very day. They have been one of the constants in my life. It seems rather fitting that I’ll be enjoying them with two of my other constants – my husband and daughter. Come September, it will be twenty-nine years since I met and was introduced to Jim. Imagine that, almost three decades ago. We’ve definitely shared some adventures over the years.

Now we are sharing in our recovery. Both of us have been on MMT for just over three years, and neither one of us has stumbled – yet, cause you can just never say never…Had we been still using, this concert would have been missed. In fact, I doubt very much that it would have even been much more than a blip on my radar. No time for stuff like that back then. Would have dismissed it with the excuse that we could simply not afford it, which was not at all truthful. In reality, we couldn’t be bothered to afford it, as our money was already earmarked for something far more important. What a difference a few years has made. I paid $150 for our three concert tickets, and yesterday paid out almost another $150 for our three bus tickets to Toronto. I’ve budgeted another $150 to use for our spending money. To a former addict, this is a massive step forward. Being able to hold onto money, to put it away to use later, to actually save is a skill that we rapidly lose once we become a junkie. I am happy, and proud and plan on really enjoying our family day out together at the show – Toronto garbage strike be damned!

P.S. Jim also just celebrated his 43rd birthday on Thursday! Happy birthday baby…Love you always…

I Got The Music In Me!!!

For as long back as I can remember, music has played an important part of my life. Discovering the wonders of Elvis Presley as a nine year old would forever alter the way that I looked at the world. To me at that time, I felt as if I had discovered something that no one else had any idea even existed. It was truly a magical and innocent time for me, and from that point on, I had to have music on in the background for every one of my waking moments – the hours of my day devoted solely to school would at times seem unbearable. From Elvis I moved on to pretty much whatever happened to be playing on the local AM Top Forty radio stations in my area. You can well imagine just how limited I actually was in regards to my musical choices, seeing how I just so happened to be growing up in the deepest, darkest musical abyss that was southwestern Ontario of the late 70′s. To my young and naive being though, I didn’t really know quite how awful it really was, and how much I was really missing out on. Of course, this all changed the summer that I turned fifteen, 1979. This would be the summer that, for better or worse, changed me in ways I can’t even begin to describe. Those brief months became a revelation to me, and from this point on, there was no way that SW Ont would ever be able to hold me down!

It was getting towards the end of June 1979. Grade Nine was rapidly coming to an end, and summer vacation was beckoning us all. Couldn’t wait for those lazy days of summer, especially as this summer just happened to offer something very, very special. My father was a teacher at the local community college, so he too, got to enjoy a couple of months vacation each and every summer, just like myself and my brother. As a family, we also had immigrated from Ireland to Canada a decade prior to this summer, and while my Dad had returned home a few times over the preceding ten years, the rest of us hadn’t. This was all about to change, as my family would be spending this summer’s vacation in Ireland, as well as England – my Mom’s parents had moved there from Ireland a number of years earlier so we were going to spend an equal amount of time between both countries and both sets of grandparents. I was so excited, although at the time, I had no idea exactly what kind of adventures awaited me, nor how profound a change these brief couple of months would end up having on me.

Although, my brother and I had more cousins living in Ireland, we did have a handful our age living in London, England, and they were more than happy to show their cousins from the colonies exactly what a huge city has to offer. Nothing in Canada prepared me for the grandness of London. At the time, we lived in a small town with a population of slightly more than 1 100. The largest city was a twenty minute drive from where we lived, and even then, its population didn’t quite reach 250 000. I was captivated instantly. I surrendered completely the second my cousins took us to Kings Road in Chelsea. I had never, ever seen or heard anything quite like I found here. Punk rock was alive and kicking, so to speak, although by the time I had arrived in the UK, the original punk movement that had exploded in 1976, had long since disappeared and been replaced by what many classify as a second wave of the punk rock movement. By the time that I arrived, punk had splintered into a number of sub groups, many of which I found exciting beyond belief, and for the brief couple of months spent in England and Ireland that summer, I couldn’t consume enough of this new music fast enough. I discovered what would soon be called New Wave and Pop Punk were my favourites and to this very day, I remain faithful and true to my first loves.

In just over a week’s time, I will be going to see one of my very first loves, Depeche Mode ! They have a show at Toronto’s Molsen Amphitheatre on Friday, July 24 – just so happens, this show falls on the day after Jim’s birthday! We’re going to make it a bit of a family day as Sara is coming with us – she was also allowed to bring a friend with her so she wouldn’t be stuck all day with our boring selves! This is also a bit of a big step for us as we’ve been keeping pretty much to ourselves this past year. Certainly, this event will have the largest crowd of people that we’ve had to interact and function within since the attack. Could prove fairly interesting. If nothing else, it certainly is a testament to how much I adore this particular band as I can’t think of too much else that would motivate me this much that’s for bloody sure.

Now, as an aside and for anyone that might be interested, besides Depeche Mode , my other all time favourite bands would have to be the Clash , Social Distortion , and Manic Street Preachers . I have a boatload of almost rans but that list would be too long…If I were stuck on a desert island, though…

ORIGINAL ART

Just some more of my art that I found…

Can you tell who I like?