Depeche Mode concert: 11/21/05

The coolest thing about Monday's concert was being able to see my favorite musical artist (or collection thereof) live for the first time ever. I missed Depeche Mode the last time they were in LA and I missed lead singer Dave Gahan in Atlanta (although that wouldn't have been as cool as seeing the whole band anyway), so it was quite a treat for me to go. I barely was even able to get one ticket (I had wanted to get two), as the whole show (in the Staples Center) sold out twenty minutes after tickets went on sale. That indicates Depeche Mode's staying power (they've now been around, and very successful, for 25 years), as most of the groups in my paradigm can't come close to doing that.

The concert started out with the first track ("A Pain That I'm Used To") from the new CD. This was appropriate for the concert as well as the album. As the DM website writes, "Touring the Angel" is about "pain and suffering in various US cities". DM's songs are often very dark, and they've really been playing it up (seemingly more than usual) for the present album. "A Pain That I'm Use To", which is an awesome song, will be the second single on the CD. (I'm not at all surprised that this song is getting released as a single.) DM played a great version of the first single ("Precious") at the show as well as several other songs from the new album (including 2 of the other 3 really great tracks).

They also played a bunch of classics, although several songs were conspicuously absent. The biggest surprise in this respect was "People are People", which was DM's first big mainstream hit. (Admittedly, this song departs a bit from their usual style.) The absent song I most wanted to hear was "Strangelove", and I was also very disappointed that they didn't play "It's No Good". Of course, there are awesome songs that I knew wouldn't be played, such as "Only When I Lose Myself" and "But Not Tonight", because they were never prominent. It's just a bit of a let-down when some of their prominent awesome songs (that are among my favorites) don't get played. This is particularly true in the case of "Strangelove" because they played several other songs from the same album (Music for the Masses) that were far less successful and (IMO) way less cool.

Still, there was plenty of awesome stuff among what they did play. The first set ended with a really awesome extended version of "Enjoy the Silence" and the second set (that is, the first encore) ended with "Everything Counts", which DM has a history of using to end sets. (Actually, this was one of the awesome songs that I thought wouldn't get played, so this was quite a pleasant surprise. I suppose the song has shown a lot of popularity in this role.)

Anyway, I had a ton of fun (despite a few questionable song choices), and I look forward to seeing DM in concert again at some point. I even was able to make it back in time for the second last Gold Line route to Pasadena. (I thought the concert might run late enough for me to miss it and spend a few quality hours in Union Station. Either that or I could have gone to The Pantry to see if I could find some stray Scurves to take me home.)