Depeche Mode Tour Films POLL

liveblogging from 1988

Had an interesting experience a couple of years ago showing 101 for the first time to someone who pretty much hates DM, or at least hates everything from DM after 101 and therefore had not listened to the band at all in decades. He was really blown away by it, both as a film and as a document.

is the rose bowl show the first time they've played to an audience that large, anywhere?

Yup, pretty much. I'd have to check their gig history to see if they played larger festivals in Europe -- always a possibility -- and they had had a huge wave already in Germany but I'm pretty sure this was their then top limit. (IIRC the Dodger Stadium shows just two years later for Violator were even bigger...I think.)

Time to rewatch some of these, it's been a while. "One Night in Paris" seems to get better with time. Corbijn is directing their next DVD too.

My favourite part of "101" is the first two minutes of this clip. I could watch it on a loop all day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYRdZWVWRGY

It's so amazing to see the insane crowd anticipation together with the "long walk" of the band, they're trying to be cool about the whole thing for the cameras but you can see that they're nervous as hell. For me it's the most revealing moment of the film.

The most revealing moment of the film for me is when the band is riding high on the monumental success of the night, while the manager and other business folks are bunkered down sussing out the cost of turf replacement and the like.

Watching "devotional" again, I can totally see the recipe for disaster. Band at or near the peak of its popularity, Gahan out there away from the rest of the band, with nowhere to hide, carrying almost all of the performance himself ... I can only imagine the pressure he was under, let alone the pressure to be a "rock star."

He was carrying the performance himself in "101" too. "Devotional" is the culmination of that process, not the start of it. But moving to LA and hanging out with "real" rock stars and wanting to be one himself obviously didn't help.

Been a while since I saw "101," but in "Devotional," he can't even make eye contact with the band! It seems like a more extreme version of, yes, the ascent that began around "101." So a culmination, sure, but the staging appears to go above and beyond to isolate him.

I've read funny accounts from Charlie Watts about what it's like the be stuck back on the drum stool while the stages get bigger and bigger and wider and wider. Basically, he just goes about his business, and every once in a while someone runs in front of him. Or he'll go several songs without knowing where Mick even is.

So, I never got very into Depeche Mode. I had a couple of the Violator singles in junior high, but they were always playing second fiddle to the Cure for me at that time. I've tried at various points to get into them again, mostly by listening to the stretch of albums from Black Celebration through Songs of Faith and Devotion, but they still never really landed for me.

Dug into the 101 album the past two days because Jenny Lee Lindberg from Warpaint recommended a track from it and everything has just fallen into place for me. I haven't been able to compare it with the source material to decide if the performances are any better or if it's just the addition of crowd noise that transforms it for me, but I feel like now I really like Depeche Mode.

I've just been soaking it up and read this thread and now am really enthused to seek out the film which is available on youtube with Deutsche Untertitel but I have so much work to do today there's no way I'm going to be able to get away with watching a two-hour movie.

Get tickets for the upcoming tour, I'd say!

It's pretty far afield for me. I might go see them if they come back to the U.S.

My favorite thing about "101" and that performance of "Everything Counts" (it's the last song, right?) is that the whole show ends with this huge, emotional moment, of everyone singing along, and the band triumphant, exultant. And then it cuts to the bean counters in the trailer, tallying the money, paying the bills, calculating how much it will cost to replace the sod ...

(At least that's how I remember it.)

It cuts back and forth over a couple of songs.

Well well well

https://store.rhino.com/artist/depeche-mode/101-deluxe-edition.html

There will be a standalone Blu-ray as well.

And tied in with that release, which is now out: my piece on the film and its inadvertant legacies and complications for the Quietus:

https://thequietus.com/articles/30946-depeche-mode-101