Getting What We Came For

Everything we had done on this day was tainted with thoughts of what would be this night. The night of the concert had come with great expectation; and it had arrived with tremendous fanfare. With tickets in hand, Sharon and I drove to the Hollywood bowl in an hour of traffic (yet, less than 15 miles from where we stayed). As we made our way through droves of sold-out crowd, enduring scalpers and vendors of illicit Depeche Mode gear, we began to recall how everything had gone too smoothly up to this point.

It was almost too hard to believe, though, that our plans proceeded unfettered - after having purchased the tickets from a secondary source (don't forget - it was sold out) months and months earlier . . . purchased air travel and come all the way from Ohio . . . and even arrived moments before the show began.

We knew that the lead singer David Gahan had been suffering from a gastrointestinal disorder since May and shows were sacrificed along the way. After arriving at the venue, we realized how fortunate we had been in hearing tales that shows in San Diego and San Francisco were canceled the day of, or at least on super-short notice (resulting in a LOT of pissed-off people). Yet our concert (2 back-to-back shows in Hollywood) survived the cuts. But after all, not performing in Los Angeles would be tantamount to shooting oneself in the foot.

But we made it. We're here. If only we can make it past all of the signs reading "Alcohol Prohibited" with a small cooler of wine, cheese, and other savory delights over my shoulder (others were trying it . . . and we heard that this was permitted, though the signs read otherwise. And if we do get in . . . what if our tickets were fakes?

Sharon ran a little static with the ticket-checker while I snuck by with the goods undetected. Yes! . . . almost to our seats and what's that I see? Nobody in our row. Except for the 2 people . . . sitting in our seats. Damn 'em. I knew it was too good to be true. But after some inconsequential ticket checking, they had simply sat in the wrong ROW. *whew* survived that one. We did it!

The only other trip-up was that the people sitting to our left had invited one of their buddies to sit with them - someone who was entitled to a seat in another part of the venue . . . right next to me, thereby squeezing us out of our seats and displacing the rest of the people in the row (bench seating in this venue). Any of you who know Sharon and I know that this, of course, is "unacceptable". Long story short . . . we verbally abused the guy to death . . but he stayed anyway. No matter, because we stood the entire time and enjoyed the concert anyway. (the fat guy and his buddies all sat . . . because I think they were afraid a skirmish might break out). Good thing.

The Band was formed in 1980, and the "original line-up was Dave Gahan (lead vocals), Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, vocals, chief songwriter after 1981), Andrew Fletcher (keyboards) and Vince Clarke (keyboards, chief songwriter 1980–81). Vince Clarke left the band after the release of their 1981 debut album, and was replaced by Alan Wilder (keyboards, drums, production) with Gore taking over songwriting. Wilder left the band in 1995 and since then Gahan, Gore, and Fletcher have continued as a trio." [citation taken from Wikipedia] We got to see Gahan, Gore, and Fletcher . . . the band as I've always known them.

Anyway . . . on to the media. Don't forget to hover your mouse over [most] pictures for thoughtful insight (heh).

The first two videos aren't mine, but rather are courtesy of Examiner.com and were shot the same night we were there. The first one is "Wrong" from their most recent album, and current tour, the other is "Walking in My Shoes". The third video is one I took from my seat at the end of the show, just before the first of TWO encores.




One more note . . . after farting around worshiping DM all night . . . I discovered that Johnny Cash did a cover of Personal Jesus before the guy passed.