Depeche Mode

GM Place. It reminds me (a little too much) of the Entertainment Centre in Sydney. Cavernous, accoustically retarded, expansive (and expensive) - as you can see, this kind of place doesn't really impress me as a concert venue. Of course I'm sure it is perfectly suited for hosting the home games of Ice Hockey when the Cannucks play here. I wanted to see Depeche Mode, but went for the cheapest seats available. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the seat I landed was pretty bad. But on the bright side it wasn't the worst!! (Didn't come with complementary field glasses though...)

On my way over to GM Place I realised I was a bit early, so I stopped for a coffee. These early mornings at work are not good if you want to stay awake for a mid-week concert. Which brings me to a good point - why are these huge international bands playing in the middle of the week?? Bauhaus was on a Thursday (not too bad), Depeche Mode on a Tuesday, and Fear Factory / Strapping Young Lad is on a Monday?!?! Is this deliberate? While I was cogitating this quandry I had an experience that I will write about in my diary entry "On homeless people and Vancouver food"

At some point I broke my reverie and decided I should find GM Place. Have you ever tried to find an enormous landmark in a big city only to realise after much searching that it was right next to you, or just behind the next building? I didn't have that problem this time around, I just followed the throng of people marching like ants converging on a huge nest. I spoke to a couple of people on the way - one guy (morose but willing to chat) was living, against his wishes, in Edmonton and had travelled a mere 1159km over to Vancouver to see the concert. He couldn't move away from Edmonton, the "murder capital of Canada", on account of his grandmother who loved it there, and whom he looked after. We parted ways upon entering the Place.

This time around the main act did have a support band play prior to their performance, unlike Bauhaus. Can't win 'em all. Can't remember who it was, they played for half an hour, then went off. It was another 35 minutes before Depeche Mode hit the stage by which time the effect that the support band had had on the crowd in terms of "warming" them up was all but worn off. Not to worry, I was confident things would warm up again soon enough. The stage for DM had been transformed into a set resembling the bridge of Star Trek's Enterprise (The Original). One reviewer likened it to the Tron set, but I think the Enterprise is more accurate. And then there was this ball suspended a metre above the stage off to the left. It was about 4 metres from one side to the other (ie huge) and it looked just like a highly polished Death Star (that's Star Wars for the sci-fi philistines among you). It's purpose: Unknown.

I knew the band was about to come on to the stage due to the cheers from the front portion of crowd (light was outpaced by sound...). They launched into "A Pain That I'm Used To" and "John The Revelator" off the new album with the Death Star providing a very subtle visual performance of it's own by displaying some words like "Pain" at random intervals. It's purpose: Still Unknown. The video backdrop was fantastic - at times showing live footage, from the stage and the crowd, which was fed through an aging filter to make it look like it was shot 20 years ago. "A Question Of Time", "Policy of Truth", "Precious", "Walking In My Shoes", and "Suffer Well" followed before front-man Dave Gahan took a well deserved break from his high energy performance (where does he get those Roger Ramjet Proton Energy Pills??). Guitarist Martin Gore, the primary songwriter, took over with "Damaged People". I wasn't sure Mr Gahan had survived his earlier Angus Young / Freddie Mercury style stint on stage as Mr Gore continued with "Home".

Continuing his pattern of bowing like a courtier after each song Dave let fly with some of the crowd-pleasers "I Want It All", "The Sinner In Me", "I Feel You", "Dream On", "World In My Eyes", and "Personal Jesus". "Enjoy The Silence" must have been the climax as at this point his shirt came off (I can't remember hearing any wild screaming from the girls though...). The audio-visual offering didn't stop here: They made a show of leaving the stage but the punters (well most of the punters) knew better than to believe the night was over.

The encore produced "Somebody" - the old school held up lighters while the new non-smoking contingent held up lit mobile phones. "Just Can't Get Enough" brought a huge response and "Everything Counts" went off like a rocket. At this point we know that when the band leaves the stage and the house lights come on then there's no chance for further encore. Fortunately GM Place remained in darkness. We waited. And they came back on (that's what I like to see!) They gave us "Never Let Me Down Again" and finally finished an epic night with "Goodnight Lovers". Dunno about you but I'm exhausted!!

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