LIVE REVIEW: DEPECHE MODE, COLLISIONI FESTIVAL, BAROLO, ITALY, 2 JULY 2018

For her last show on this tour, Katia Gigliotti returns to review her second show for this project following her Turin review on 11 December. As we'll see, a festival crowd is very different from the usual Depeche crowd, but once again Dave wins them all over. Thank you very much for this superb review Katia and for the great pictures too. It's great to see the blog t-shirts getting out and about!

I do not like festivals. That's a fact. But I do love Depeche Mode, so when I heard about my fave band coming to one of the nicest spots in Piedmont, I couldn't help going.

People have been queuing for two days before and when I arrived in Barolo, after work (somehow I have to earn money to spend for music and football), it was around 5 p.m.  and the small Colbert square was already crowded in the front rows. It was so hot that, to survive, I decided to stay aside, by some trees, to enjoy some shadow, but I wore very high heels, trying to see from an higher perspective: I can assure you it was a physical act of bravery.

I could not work out where to base myself at the festival: where I was, you could breath, but you were continuously punched and pressed by people looking for their way to the bar, to the toilet and to find other friends. That happened not only before the show, but also during the opening act  - Marlene Kuntz, a quite famous indie rock band of the late 90s from the area.  Very good musicians, but I personally have found their music not very interesting; it seemed to me the singer's voice disappeared in the noise of the other instruments.

Katia wearing some exclusive merchandise

But in the front rows, you could not breath, you were packed like sardines in a can, continuously pushing and fighting to keep the position. We were very close to the stage though -  if you stretch your arms you feel can almost touch them with your fingers.

Another thing about festivals, or, at least, festivals in Italy, is the security staff. Their mantra is live and let die: that is, as long as you do not bother me and, instead, bother other people, we are ok with that.

I found the DM fans community one of the most gentle, kind, amiable and I always found good friends in Italy and abroad, devotees are unique and this project is one expression of that (thank you David!). During festivals however, you can find a lot more of rude, unkind and uninterested people, and this affects also the pleasantness of the concert. At the end, that is why I do not like festivals.

Another side effect of festival is the reduced set list: DM started with the usual Revolution intro at 21:15. Dave jacket on, appeared from one side of the stage (smaller stage: no catwalk, no top stage as per other concerts).

Dave was, as usual, so elegant and self-confident from the very beginning: his voice warm and overwhelming, but too much confidence led him to make an error on the first song. No problem, he recovered immediately, dominating the stage, his voice perfection, but he is human after all and I enjoy these small mistakes that break the routine.

Jacket off for the second song, It's No Good, and Barolo is already in flames. Martin looked so pure in his white suit and shining with a nice glitter under his eyes, whilst Fletch caught the audience moving and shaking since the very beginning (sooo cute, I adore him).

After many concerts, and many reviews, the setlist is probably not the most interesting thing to read, but even if you can hardly find a surprise in the show, every gig is different and every song has a slightly different effect on the crowd.

Dave shaking and rotating with the mic stand (I would fall on the ground after the first turn!) on A Pain That I'm Used To", then the sweet Precious led to World in my Eyes. Dave kept going with his usual touching, even if he started songs before his personal sensual show in the show: half of the crowd wish they were the mic stand.

Cover Me is by far the best track on Spirit, and it is incredible how it caught the audience, even without the usual trip on the catwalk.. As my devote friend Emilia says, this music, like the song of the sirens of Ulysses, imprisons you in an ultra-earthly dimension: takes you away, in the Cover me spacecraft, to another galaxy with a pentagram structure.

It is one of the best moment of the show, or at least the one that touched me more: from love to love. After Cover Me, the only Martin moment of the show, one of the most passionate, intense, touching renditions of Somebody I have ever heard. I guess I was not the only one that brought into tears. This song is my religion, it is the best love song ever without ever using the word love a single time.  It was so incredible and all the crowd was so taken, that, coming back on the stage, Dave asked Barolo: "Wasn't that nice?" and then "wasn't that beautiful?" Yes, it was, Dave. Indeed.

To recover from such emotions, here is the wonderful In Your Room (another of my favourites) and oh that video! I love those dancers, the colours. I saw it several times already (this is my 7th and, unfortunately, last date for the Spirit Tour), and I never get bored.

Dave looked very chatty, inspired, sending kisses to the audience. He seemed happy on the stage, like he tasted one of the finest wines in the world, Barolo (no idea if he loves wine, but maybe Fletch and the crew did enjoy it - David, if you haven't yet, you should come here and try).

Time flies and the songs rapidly follow one another: "Everything counts", "Stripped", "Personal Jesus"; the setlist is quite short, with the unavoidable (luckily!) Never Let Me Down Again and the usual wheat field, in the land of vineyards and it is, sadly too early, time for the encore.

Time to appreciate the beautiful video on Walking In My Shoes and then Enjoy the Silence (I still found a guy in the crowd dressed like the king of the video: with such a hot temperature!) to end with the one and only surprise for this leg: an incredible Just can't Get Enough.

I know most DM fans do not like that song so much and maybe neither DM themselves, but I was so impressed by Christian and the band keeping the song so up-to-date with this drum sound, and its impact live has remarkably improved, compared to its first appearance in this tour.

I kept singing and thinking I just can't get enough. And I really can never get enough of Depeche Mode, despite all of this sweat, beer pouring, feet hurting and neck elongation trying to see something over that sea of heads and dozens of mobile phones (we luckily get rid of one old guy using a tablet during the opening act!). I would be ready to do it that again and again, because Depeche Mode are not only a band, they are my religion, they are a way of living, they are a link among fans, that link that seems to have existed forever even if you just met.

Maybe I am not impartial being a fan, but a friend, commenting the show wrote "Only once in my life had I seen an equally seductive frontman: it was another time I had seen Depeche Mode". Would you disagree?

See you another time, promised Dave leaving the stage. I'm counting on it.

A special thanks to Depeche Mode for being what they are, and an incredible thanks to David for letting me be part of the project "Almost Predictable. Almost".

Setlts:Intro Revolution (The Beatles) Going Backwards It's No Good A Pain That I'm Used To (Jacques Lu Cont remix version) Precious World in My Eyes Cover Me Somebody In Your Room Everything Counts Stripped Personal Jesus Never Let Me Down Again

Encore: Walking in My Shoes Enjoy the Silence, Just Can't Get Enough

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Thank you Katia

LIVE REVIEW: DEPECHE MODE, PALA ALPITOUR, TURIN, 11 DECEMBER 2017

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. 

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!