Blog friend, fellow Home (depeche-mode.com) mod and geniune film star Daniel Cassus returns to reviewing duties for the Depeche show in Lyon on 31st May. As we will see, there is a Spirits In The Forest mini reunion among much else in this great review. Thanks very much Daniel. All pictures are his so don't nick them without saying that.
May 31st. The day had come. I woke up at 2am to catch a very early flight to Geneva and then a train to Lyon. The plan was simple: try to do a reunion of us fans from Spirits in the Forest. Well, four of us made it. And it was also my first show of this tour. What can I say?
We hung around the merchandise stand right in front of the entrance and we were… a bit surprised (but then again, not that much) with the spike in prices. I was put off from almost everything simply because I am not a fan of the design of the apparel this time. The skull in particular doesn’t say “Depeche Mode” to me. But I did succumb to the grey fleece jacket.
A man arrived with a plain white shirt with a special message to Dave written with a sharpie on the back. He did find something else to wear during the show and spared Dave from the odd request.
Let’s talk about the show, shall we? We were all seated together on a grandstand on the left side of the stage. Not the best view, but also the best view. Why? I got to see a DM concert from a distance with the crowd in my vision.
The visual aspect of this tour that deserves a highlight (no pun intended) are the lights. The entire lighting is a show within a show. It’s as if they translated music into colors and beams of light everywhere in the stadium.
To be honest, the crowd didn’t really go nuts until they played Enjoy The Silence. Not even Walking In My Shoes and It’s No Good early in the set got them bananas as I expected. For me every song sounded fantastic. Sister Of Night with Dave on vocals is a highlight of this tour for me. And even though this setlist seems to have copied half of the one from the Global Spirit Tour, I still caught myself singing loud the lyrics to every song.
Of course I was voiceless the following day. The singalong expected of Everything Counts simply did not happen. It even looked a bit embarrassing to watch Dave trying to get the crowd singing the coda and the response being almost null. What’s wrong with you people? The new singalong at the end of John The Revelator however gave the song a new life. And from that part of the show on, the crowd finally got wild.
What else could I say? Waiting For The Night is a magical moment. Stripped and Just Can’t Get Enough sounded better this time. If there were complaints that they weren’t using the original sound patches when playing live, this time you can clearly hear that, YES, they are using the exact same sound banks pulled from the studio versions. This also goes for Christian’s drum kit live tweaks. Crashes, snares and kicks all sound like the original sounds we’re used from the studio versions of each song. Peter is on the bass a bit more often on this tour (although I’m waiting to see him play My Favourite Strange” again).
Dave and Martin were flawless in their performances. All in all, a great show to celebrate friendships while enjoying Depeche Mode before our eyes.
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Thanks very much Daniel.
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