Depeche Mode at the Hollywood Bowl

Show dates October 12 and 16, 2017

Ever since I was divorced, I resolved to see more Depeche Mode shows per tour than just the one in my home city. I've settled into a nice rhythm of about 3 shows per tour now for the last 2 tours. One in my home city of Dallas, and a 1 or 2 more at a destination that I've chosen because it is important in the fan community. For the last tour - Delta Machine, I chose Berlin, and also ended up going to the Austin City Limits festival because Austin is so close to Dallas plus I had not yet seen The Cure who was also playing. This tour I've chosen Los Angeles. Next tour I think I'll probably choose London.

Any Devotee worth their salt knows how important Los Angeles is to Depeche Mode. LA is basically responsible for DM's popularity in the US. I wanted to come because of the fans.

DM has done what no other band has ever done before. Sold out 4 shows in a row at the Hollywood Bowl. Now, I do happen to know that many of those tickets for the 3rd and especially the 4th show are (were) available on the secondary market. So while technically sold out, sadly I think there may have been a lot of empty seats.

I've only been to LA once before, and for a very brief trip....to see Recoil open for Martin Gore in Santa Ana in 2010. It was a difficult trip because I had *just* come back from Burning Man that year and taking another trip so soon was financially difficult, but I'm incredibly glad I went as I got to meet Martin. (At this point I've only yet to meet Dave and Fletch, and get an autograph from Martin).

Anyway, I wanted to come to LA and bask in the liberal synthpop bounty-land that is Southern California. I wanted to experience the SoCal fandom and visit locations that are important in the DM story. I went by the Sunset Marquis hotel where Dave nearly died (okay maybe I'm a little bit morbid in that). I saw the Troubadour club where they played their warm-up club show prior to the Delta Machine tour. I went to visit a store that was offering ridiculously expensive DM merch (officially licensed?) - among other stuff. I even heard Depeche played on the news. I'm not sure if this happens all the time or if it was just because of their historic sold out event, but I was happy. Thank you for delivering, LA.

My concert buddy Bree (whom I met in the DM fandom online in 2009) and I decided to stay at a hotel in Hollywood that was within walking distance of the Hollywood bowl. Boy am I glad we did that. This made life so much easier. LA in general and Hollywood is much more mountainous than I had expected, so it was quite funny to me to see the concert goers in a goth hike toward the bowl, all dressed in black.

For my first show on Thursday, it was *really* cold. Fortunately I had come prepared with a jacket and gloves, but it was really distracting. Every time I wanted to take some pictures I had to take off my gloves. There were no set list changes for me from the Dallas show. I was bummed about this and was hoping that all 4 shows would get something different from the rest because they were *special*.  No such luck. But Dave did do 3 costume changes during the show (standard now I think?) and we got the red jacket, red sparkly vest, red vest in the back, and then the red vest in the front (unlike Dallas)! I really like red on Dave. He looks so good in it. I don't think Martin has different outfits that he's wearing this tour...it seems like the same one all 3 times. Maybe another multiple show veteran can confirm?

Here was Hollywood Bowl show 1 set list:

Going Backwards
So Much Love
Barrel of a Gun
A Pain That I'm Used To ('Jacques Lu Cont's remix' version)
Corrupt
In Your Room
World in My Eyes
Cover Me
A Question of Lust (acoustic)
Home
Poison Heart
Where's the Revolution
Wrong
Everything Counts
Stripped
Enjoy the Silence
Never Let Me Down Again


Encore:
Somebody
Walking in My Shoes
Heroes
I Feel You
Personal Jesus

There is this area in the front of the Hollywood bowl that kind of looks like a fence or barrier around the first few rows. Bree and I disagreed that it was a catwalk of sorts, I didn't think so, she did. I'm so glad I was wrong. During Cover Me, Dave walked (I should say skipped!) out onto this little curved wall and sang to the crowd from right up close! I'm so glad I remembered to bring my binoculars. Our seats were not particularly close so I couldn't capture a good photo of it, but I could see it rather well through my binocs. Dave seems to love this so much!  Getting up close to the fans...giving them high fives as he makes his way to the end of this catwalk. Mental note for next time if I ever come back here...get closer seats at this venue.

Since this set list was the same as the one in Dallas, I didn't note anything else remarkable or different, except I have noticed Dave saying that (whatever city) really is the best! Awww. 💗 One could take this as sounding rehearsed and canned, but I take it as Dave wanting every crowd to know that they are special and important. I really believe he believes this.

After the show, we joined some of my other long distance concert buddies Kristin and Amanda at the Pig n' Whistle bar for a DM dance party hosted and DJ'd by Freddie Morales. This. This is one of my favorite parts of the DM fan experience. Getting together with other fans. Dancing. Talking about our show experiences. Sharing stories. Being with my people. Freddie put on a great set. We closed the place down.

We did not have tickets to the Saturday show, so we spent the days sightseeing. There happened to be 2 after parties after the show on Saturday however, so we chose the one at the Monty bar as opposed to the one that Freddie was hosting - just to get a different experience. I found out later that another long distance concert buddy Sara was actually there and we missed each other. :( I danced my ass off anyway though, and then afterwards Bree and I went to rest and get a bite at a 24 hour fine dining railroadcar/restaurant called the "Pacific Dining Car" in downtown LA. Only in LA!!!

By the time our Monday show rolled around, the weather had gotten much warmer. Hot even. Our seats for our 2nd show were much better physically (upper section behind boxes but closer than last time, and dead center - the "Silver" ticket package), however emotionally they kind of sucked because EVERYONE AROUND US WAS SITTING DOWN. OKAY WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?! They only stood when World in my Eyes came on, but then sat back down again afterwards! They didn't stand back up again till Everything Counts came on, and then thankfully stood for the rest of the show once more of the "classic hits" were being played. Bree and I said fuck it, and stood and danced, to the consternation of the people behind us. I'm so sorry, but it's a fucking concert. AN ELECTRONIC DANCE MUSIC CONCERT. Why. The. Fuck. are you people sitting down? These tickets were more expensive than the ones we had for the previous show, but all of those people around us were standing up over there! I would think that if you paid more for your better seats, then you would be more excited about attending the show and be more into it. Bree thinks the opposite...that people who pay more (in general) are going to be *less* invested.

What do you think? What has been your experience?

Anyway, we got the same costumes as Thursday, and we did get some set list changes. Martin sang Insight acoustic during his first interlude, and then we got It's No Good and then Black Celebration instead of Heroes. I kind of missed hearing Heroes again. I'm not a huge fan of the song itself, but I love them performing it so much because it is so important to all of them, and especially Dave. It is definitely the most *moving* part of the show, if not my favorite.


Here's the set list from that show:

Going Backwards
It's No Good (Tour Debut; first time since 2009)
Barrel of a Gun
A Pain That I'm Used To
Corrupt
In Your Room
World in My Eyes
Cover Me
Insight (Tour debut, acoustic; Sung by Martin)
Home
Poison Heart
Where's the Revolution
Wrong
Everything Counts
Stripped
Enjoy the Silence
Never Let Me Down Again

Encore:
Shake the Disease
Walking in My Shoes
Black Celebration (instead of Heroes)
I Feel You
Personal Jesus

A few random notes about what I thought about the set list (links go to videos of those songs at that show. All open in a new window.):

I'm going to tell you a little secret right now. When they played It's No Good, I didn't realize it was different and the tour debut of that song. Like I mentioned before, I haven't really been keeping up with the set lists because I wanted to be surprised, so it wasn't until later that I realized this was new for this tour. *ducks*

I wish they hadn't chose to open with Going Backwards. I think it kind of gets lost as the show opener...some people have actually not arrived yet, people are not quite settled, the audience energy isn't quite up. It's one of my favorite from this album and it's so beautiful, I feel that it's almost wasted as the show opener. Not that it doesn't have enough energy, but it's beauty and grandeur is somewhat lost both in the live setting and as the show opener. I think Where's the Revolution - being the first single would have been a better choice, especially since the pre-show music is Revolution by the Beatles.

In this venue. Wrong really lost its punch for me. At the Starplex, even though I hate that venue, I loved Wrong. It was loud and boomy and had so much energy. Maybe it's because I was further away, but it was lost a bit on me. I was really disappointed about that. 😡

I did really love our set list changes. I do love It's No Good and wish it had registered with me that it was the tour debut at the time. Black Celebration in the encore was excellent and quite fitting, And of course Insight and Shake the Disease are beautiful (My favorite Martin songs are ones like this where he sings in his lower register) and ended up making this a rather Ultra-heavy show.

When Dave came back from one of the breaks, I saw him give Martin the warmest hug. I *wish* I had my camera ready for this. I love seeing their relationship improve over the years. After the encore I saw another equally warm and lingering hug. *swoon*. I love this so much. Another equally warm hug happened near the end of the show too. Dammit camera. Too slow.  If you have video of either of these two instances, please comment!

I have now done the arm wave 21 times.

Due to popular demand, another after party was organized by Freddie at a different venue a little further away, but still walkable. This one was a bit more subdued and smaller, with most of my friends unable to meet up, however Freddie still tore it up. Thanks for playing Loverman and Man Made Machine! I was the only one dancing to those. I still want to hear Oh Well in a club. Maybe some day.

Here's Spirit (taco) Truck before our first show

After the show we began our slow downhill trek back to the hotel, and we passed the Spirit Truck again. I had seen social media posts about this around town, and saw it before the first show too. I had heard rumors that there was going to be a pop up store in LA (because obviously) and some of the fans thought that this truck was going to be LA's version of a pop up store. Well, sort of, but not exactly. They did have a *few* exclusive merch items, but not very many. (I was really bummed that there was no actual pop up store 😩) When I stopped at the truck before the first show, some guy who had just bought something noticed me looking and I commented that the special Hollywood Bowl poster looked nice. He said that I had better buy it now because it was going to sell out immediately for sure. I didn't want to take care of it and have it damaged during the show, so I passed. Well there it was, still for sale. So I got the poster (and no damage on the way home!)

I want to say that Depeche Mode are consummate professionals. They put on a damn good show. Their light show was beautiful. The graphics and films interesting. Their energy unwavering. Everything runs like clockwork.  Their showmanship is top notch. They are just good performers. And it is a good performance. It will never be anything else. Because they are Depeche Mode. I'm so glad I got to experience this.

We'll see you next time!

If you are interested, here are a couple of other reviews of the same shows. Both are excellent. The first one is by a friend of mine Kristin Vogel-Campbell whom I had the pleasure of meeting for the first time after the first show.
Show 1
Show 2

I have a few videos mixed in with my photos. The photos are *mostly* of the screen as I was a bit too far away to get decent zoomed in shots. Enjoy!

Show 1: Oct 12

Show 2

Show 2 Oct 16

After Party at the Velvet Margarita