LIVE REVIEW: DEPECHE MODE, OLIMPISKI, MOSCOW, 25 FEBRUARY 2018

Hot on the heels of her Vilnius review, Polina Lipezina returns to give us her take on the last show of the third leg of the Global Spirit Tour - the show at Olimpiski, Moscow on 25 February. Thanks very much for this great review Polina and for the photos too. An excellent way to finish off the third leg of the tour

At first, it seemed that it would be awesome to write about the last concert of the European tour. About the concert though, I realised I am going to have a break from Depeche Mode for several months… No, guys, that’s not cool. After pondering this fact for 15 minutes long, I didn’t have a clue where to even start. 

I will probably begin with words of gratitude to the organizers. All of us, who have been at least once to the Olimpiysky Stadium knows what kind of hell goes on there! Seriously, always, with any concert! This time the organizers managed to launch the concert well. Yes, it wasn’t perfect and there is still room for improvement, but this small victory of common sense has planted a seed of hope for the future shows… I really hope that it will only get better later! 

As for the concert, it was somewhat strange itself. I feared I would be torn apart by emotions, as this time there would be no concert two days later where I could see the guys again, just as it had been during the past two weeks. But nothing of this kind happened. Yes, after Precious I had a little meltdown, but then I got myself together and tried to remember every second of the event, what I obviously didn’t do. How do people remember the concerts anyway? It’s impossible! 

Compared to the my previous concerts (Saint-Petersburg, Vilnius, Riga, Minsk, Helsinki), the Moscow crowd seemed like one of the best singing crowds. Maybe it was also the matter of the fact that we were one of the biggest crowds of the winter tour? 

The warmup pleased me again, I even regretted that I won’t hear Black Line again. But what can we do is wait to see in four years what Martin, Dave and Andy will prepare for a warmup… 

From the very start of the concert, or more precisely first 5 minutes before its started, we all waited for the photographers, as usual. What shocked me – there were only three of them! This is very weird, I have personal explanations to this, but I don’t want to spread rumors. But that was cool as during the first three songs you can finally wave your hands as much as you please, without any fear of knocking a photographer off :) 

It is one of those many concerts (probably starting with November) when on seeing Dave on stage in the distance I am bothered by only one question: what colour outfit does he have on and, in particular, what colour are the shoes? Some weird female stuff. In winter I was actually bothered by another question: where are his red shoes?! In the end, in Moscow, as in many other towns, I wasn’t lucky enough to see a red costume, but Dave wowed everyone with gold. 

Overall, nothing could disturb a smooth almost familiar concert, apart from those times when Dave’s microphone was far too quiet. Thankfully that was fixed pretty quickly. 

As for unusual things I could probably point out that Dave specifically called this concert “(t)he last.” I have no clue what he meant by that, but prior Cover Me he said the following: “This is our last show tonight, just for a little while. So hope you are all enjoying yourselves”. I hope he was only referring to the show being the last Moscow one on this tour. 

At the exit of the catwalk there was a surprise for Dave: there was a really large distance in Moscow between the catwalk and the barrier. So, with all the effort it was really difficult to reach out for Dave, barely with the fingertips. I cannot remember in any winter show distance that long. 

At the end right after Home when Dave presented the entire band, he said, that Moscow was the best of all! 

I also noticed that Dave was grimacing a lot towards Martin. The reason for this, as I understood after the bow, was a duo sitting offstage, Douglas McCarthy and Bon Harris (musicians from Black Line), to whom Dave rushed to give hugs. I think it was cute. I liked them as well, I’d hug them too, if I could! 

“See you some other place, some other time, thanks so much, goodnight!”– David told us as a goodbye. As for us, we will just say: See you next time!

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Thank you Polina!