Growing up, I tried hard to be the quintessential little goth kid. I loved The Cure, Bauhaus, and Siouxsie and the Banshies. I was defined by the music I listened to. And that was fine… as tends to happen, I grew out of it.
Except for Depeche Mode.
Man, I love those guys. Now, this happened to be fortunate for me, since as I was getting a little older, I was reaching a point in my life where I wasn’t always broke. So I went out and bought everything I could by them. Albums, singles, maxi-singles, EPs, Even one or two of those ridiculously expensive black boxes of singles. I was also fortunate enough to see them live 9 or 10 times. And it was great. They always put on a great show.
Fast forward 8 or 9 years, and Katie mentions to me that she’s never seen them, and that they’re coming back around again in support of the new album1. So she gets us cheap some lawn seats at shoreline, and off we go.
I guess it was a good show. But boy, I had a heard time shaking the fact that Dave and Martin looked so old. I also really thought his vocals seemed really rough (though kate strongly disagrees with me). And some of the songs they played (especially during the encore) seemed a little boring.
I guess it’s just different now. When I was 15 and it was my first concert, I was completely blown away. Now that I’m a little older, seeing the $40 t-shirts, the $9 beers, and sitting in what seems like 8 miles away, kinda doesn’t do it for me anymore.
1 which I don’t really like all that much, I gotta say—for my money, Songs of Faith and Devotion is their best album.