This review comes courtesy of Katia Gigliotti from Turin who attended both of this month's shows at Pala Alpitour, taking her sister along on night 2 for her first ever Depeche live experience. It sounds like she picked a good gig for that. Thanks very much indeed to Katia for this great review and the superb pictures too. Enjoy this everyone and for more from Katia, follow her on Twitter - @KatiaKgigliohttps://twitter.com/KatiaKgiglio
11th December: my sister's birthday. When I heard that Depeche Mode would add a second concert in my hometown Torino, I thought about a very special gift: her first Depeche Mode concert. She is not so in love like me yet, but that's probably because she never seen them live. We discovered DM together, back in 1986 with “Black Celebration”, the LP (no CD’s available at that time). It spun a thousand times on our turntable, so much so that our mother also learned it by heart.
I got early entry tickets, that means that we enter early and do not move till it's over. I was astonished by some reviews about gigs across the ocean, where people use to go to the bar or to the loo during the show. How could it be possible? I would like those concert magic to last forever and I cannot bear to miss even a single second of the gig.
Ok back to our show.
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| Katia and her blog credentials |
Avant mode
14:00:
4 hours under the snow: yes, to add magic to magic and to suffer well, it snowed all day! We warmed up with some glasses of the delicious local grappa. I tried this trick queuing on Saturday in the chilly wind. It worked well, so I did it again. But a question I have is: how many f***ing Early Entry tickets did they sell? So many devotees and so little or no chance to get to the front of the stage.
With a bit of local pride, I must say a word about the perfect organization from the Turin security staff: when doors opened, they let us in almost one by one, to prevent people rushing to the pit. On Saturday I was on Martin's side, this time, since I was number 101 in the queue (what a number!), I could not get in front of Dave, so I chose a nice place stuck to the catwalk. In a while, two nice young girls, looking for the best available place, stopped behind us, commenting "good place: at blow*** level." I should have guessed that this was going to be a very hot night!
18:00
Still 3 hours to go, mostly ruined by the terrible, obsessive noise –I cannot bear to call it music- in the Palalpitour, even if for me it will always be PalaIsozaki, named after the Japanese architect that design it for 2006 winter Olympics.
20:00
It's Pumarosa time: nice opening act, good music, charismatic singer in a long silver dress. The rest of the band, apart from the keyboard/saxophone player, instead, seems just back from a university party, jeans and t-shirt. The overall impression is of charming, fresh band; I loved their Princess song. Good to dance. But ok, we are not here for Pumarosa.
Depeche Mode on
21:10
After all this waiting it's time to go backwards: obviously there's no big surprise at the beginning. Dave entering the stage from above, Anton Corbijn pyrotechnical visual dominating the scene, keeping the band in a dark blue shade.
Dave seems immediately in a good mood and there is no need to wait for World In My Eyes to see Dave grabbing his jewels (don't know if this makes sense in English - APA: It does don't worry :D ). I think tonight he put uncomfortable pants on: so much touching and shaking and all the classic Dave's moves that made us scream. I saw this several times, not as much as I had desired, but it always has the same effect. But tonight I was on Fletch side and I stared at him, attracted by his hypnotic moves. He does not need to sweat to grab the attention, he is like a priest and we are his worshipers. So divine!
End of the first song and time to take off the glittering electric blue jacket. It's No Good. Yes actually, it's not good, it's perfect. The Ultra moment goes on with Barrel Of A Gun, to be honest, the least enjoyable of the setlist. It's then Playing The Angel time with A Pain That I'm Used To in the Jacques Lu Cont's remix version, with Peter Gordeno digging into your soul with his bass guitar, and, after the new entry of this leg Useless with a classic Corbijn black & white video, the intense Precious. I do love that song, but it has not got yet the same impact live as other songs. It is a pity they abandoned Wrong, which in the first leg was so intense, dark, perfectly balanced, and where Chris Eigner was drumming like an hammer, almost making you forget that there was a time Depeche Mode used no drums at all.
Then we get to the PG moment: World In My Eyes, with the usual female scream-a-long, and after that, Cover Me, one of the most intense song of the new album. The lucky guys at the end of the catwalk had the chance to shake Dave's hand at the end of the song, something that didn’t happen on Saturday. By the way, Dave, to answer your question, I would cover you.
Song after song, dream after dream, we arrive to the new tracks in the set list, such as Sister Of Night. I was there with my sister, I told you, but maybe this is not the right song to dedicate to her! Then Home -after wandering around Europe after DM, I am home with my beloved- and In Your Room to follow: the video is superb, and the song, together with Somebody, has always been one of my favorite, its words are tattooed in my deep heart and when they echo in my ears is always so emotional.
But we've got a new album out, so it’s time for Where’s The Revolution, before the astonishing four in a row: Everything Counts, Black Celebration (another new entry in tonight’s setlist and a very special gift for the sisters, even if Dave got some lyrics wrong, just reminding us they are still humans), Enjoy The Silence and Never Let Me Down Again with the whole PalaIsozaki transformed in an impressive wheat fields. This song, with this effect always makes me cry; the first time I saw that, I was shocked, and even if I know what to expect, every time I got goosebumps.
Time for the Encore: Judas (new!), sung by Martin, that in both Torino nights seemed a little bit quiet, Walking in My Shoes and I Feel You (the last new entry for tonight).
It’s Personal Jesus the song for our momentary goodbye, with the band thanking the warm audience and Dave hugging Martin, whatever that means.
Great night, great feeling, great audience, everybody dancing and screaming and it’s astonishing to see all this love going back and forth from the stage to the crowd, even if, I felt like I was fainting at the end, for all the waiting, the standing still, and then the emotions, the singing, jumping and dancing. I am not a teenager anymore, and being a DM is such a tough job. But someone has got to do it.
Hope to see them again soon, a new concert nearby has been just announced for this summer (Dave do you need another review for Barolo, 2nd July 2018?), because I just can’t get enough, I am addicted to Depeche Mode.
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Thanks Katia and yes, Barolo is yours!
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