Get your own Free Home PageDepeche Mode did a rare live appearance last night (May 16th, 1997) here in Los Angeles, at the Shrine Exposition Hall (right next to the Shrine Auditorium, where they have The Oscars, The Emmys, and other long boring awards shows). Here's little rundown of the evenings' events (from Brat).
"I got to the venue at around 6:20 (it was actually 5, but my friends wanted to eat). There was already a long line of radio contest winners, as well as the people who kissed butt to Reprise Records for tickets (myself included). Howie Klein (president of Reprise Records), and Johnathon Kessler (DM's manager) were walking up and down the line, asking DM trivia questions (who signed DM to Sire records, who was the mixer of the Club 69 mix of It's No Good, etc.). Basically, if you knew where the event was, you got it. I, myself, helped out at least 5 pairs of people answering the trivia questions for them. Enough of this though.
The line got broken up into 2 lines. The KROQ (L.A. radio station) winners line, and the non-KROQ winners. While the non-KROQ line had to wait until after 8 PM to get inside, the KROQ winners were ushered into the actual Shrine Auditorium, where they got to take their picture with the band (albeit it was 40 people at a time). After they got to feast on free fruit and cheese (wow...big spenders), they got to go inside the Shrine Expo, where the non-KROQ winners had already been enjoying the open bar (labelled the "Ultra Bar"), looking up at the people on the balcony (the "Ultra Lounge"...needed a grey wristband to get up there), and listening to a great DJ set (Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk, Sneakerpimps, B.B.E., etc.) by Jason Bentley. Though the music was extremely enjoyable, we all were waiting for the big moment.
At around 10:30 pm, the lights went down, and Uselink started playing. The crowd went crazy. After Uselink (rather abruptly) ended, Barrel Of A Gun started, at which time the curtains that had been in front of the stage (and had a lightshow of the symbol from the It's No Good sleeve floating around in a multi-color display) opened up to reveal the band (David, Martin, Andy, Dave Clayton on keyboard, and the drummer (Christian Eigner, a drummer from Austria). It was the same lineup as the night before when they performed It's No Good on The Tonight Show (US TV). The band looked (and performed) great! No missed notes. No errors. Nothing. A flawless show, with an unbelievable amount of energy. During Barrel Of A Gun , Useless , and It's No Good , David was Old Dave...He had a short haircut, was smiling from ear to ear, dancing around, full of energy, and looked extremely happy to be performing in front of a crowd again.
After It's No Good, David left the stage, and then Martin took center stage for a fantastic performance of Home . It followed the album version pretty closely, but towards the end, during the strings part, Martin was adding some "ahhhs" and "ohhhs" that were just great. David came back on stage, and the band went into their final song Never Let Me Down Again , which got the crowd insane. I'm sure the crowds' screams overloaded the microphones that I saw recording the event (saw a few videocameras in the soundpit area in the center of the room). After the song, the band waved, and left the stage.
I was a little let down that they only did 5 songs (the same as the UK Ultra party they threw a few weeks back), but I was expecting it. After the performance, the DJ came back on, and continued spinning. The event went to about 2 am (but I left at 11:15 pm, so it may have closed early). As my friends and I left, we were feeling the typical Mode Buzz that happens after a Mode concert. Walking around, screaming "Mode", checking out all the cars having Mode stickers all over them...just having a real good time. Even the side wall of the Shrine had a small lightshow of Mode. They had the picture of Dave from the back of Ultra shining on the wall, and next to it, varying sizes of "Depeche Mode - Ultra" (in the stencil font). All in all, a killer night. Let's hope some of this video that was shot gets released!"
Tuesday, June 10 1997 08:35
© 1997 Brat.
Some photos from that show:
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