Han, in London

Subtitle: a conversation with myself

So, Han, you went to see Depeche Mode again, right? 

YES. YES I DID. 

You enjoyed yourself, I'm guessing?

YES LOTS 

In the O2 arena again? 

Yes, Row R which as it turns out IS ONLY THE SECOND ROW FROM THE TOP. Spent more time standing up than last time as once the people in front of us stood up we couldn't see anything. 

Who were the support act this time? 

The Jezabels, who can be found here: www.youtube.com/user/TheJezabelsVideos

So was it the same setlist as last time? 

Not exactly. Most of the songs were the same, but they dropped Barrel of a Gun, Higher Love, When the Body Speaks, Soothe My Soul, Secret To The End and Home.

They added But Not Tonight, The Child Inside, Behind the Wheel and Leave In Silence (which was amazing). They're all Martin Gore vocals except BTW, so presumably this was to give Dave Gahan a bit less to do this late on in the tour. 

Speaking of, is he still a massive ham onstage?

Yep!

Did he spend a frustratingly short amount of time shirtless again?

Yep. Thankfully I have a Tumblr account and I'm not afraid to use it to look at ALL THE DM PHOTOS. 

Okay, but how was the music?

It was SO GOOD! The acoustic parts with Martin singing were particularly amazing, but Dave Gahan's voice was as wonderful and clear as ever. Leave In Silence has never been one of my favourites but it was fantastic live, Black Celebration was brilliant now I know the words, Policy of Truth was great again. 

The only low point was Behind the Wheel, which is probably in my bottom 5 Depeche Mode songs. I knew it was on the setlist and it was okay but ugh, why that of ALL THE DM SONGS?

The encore was really good this time - Leave In Silence, Halo, Just Can't Get Enough, I Feel You and OF COURSE Never Let Me Down Again, which is still the absolute best.

They still didn't do Everything Counts though, did they?

Sadly, no. 

But Dave Gahan did end it by saying 'See you next time', so if there's another tour there's a chance they will in future, isn't there? 

Yeah, Han, you keep telling yourself that. 

...so that was my second Depeche Mode concert. It was really great again, although I think the sound was a bit different being further up - it wasn't quite as blasting, as I could hear kikishua when she talked to me, unlike last time. I definitely hope there will be another tour as I would love to see them again.

On Tuesday evening the incomparably excellent kikishua (she booked it) and I went to see Depeche Mode at the O2. It was THE BEST. I have not quite come down from it yet. People who follow me on twitter should be grateful I haven't posted as many lyrics tweets as I've wanted to.

We were late (because I am a total twit and somehow managed to fuck up pasta that evening: idek) and so missed most of the support act, but they are called How To Dress Well and you can find their stuff here: http://www.last.fm/music/How+to+Dress+Well

The amazing thing about Depeche Mode is that really, no matter how long a show they do, no matter how many singles they include, there are still loads they've missed out. Just off the top of my head, some of my favourite songs they didn't do: Useless, Strangelove, Peace, Wrong, Stripped, Everything Counts. I could go on, and still, this show was AMAZING.

Setlist: http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/depeche-mode/2013/o2-arena-london-england-13d99dc1.html TWENTY-THREE SONGS. You could add another ten and still be leaving out some really good music.

I really like the new album, having had time to listen to it over and over (still possibly slightly prefer Sounds Of The Universe, but there's very little to choose between them). I was really pleased with the songs they played from the new album - Welcome to My World, Angel, Should Be Higher, Secret To The End, Goodbye, Soothe My Soul - and Soothe My Soul turned out to be far more of a crowd-pleaser than I'd expected from hearing it on the album.

I LOVED the live versions of the older songs. A couple (one of them was A Pain That I'm Used To, I can't remember the other) were different enough that it wasn't until Dave Gahan started singing that I definitively knew what they were. I haven't been to a concert like that before. Alright, I haven't been to that many concerts, but when I have they've been fairly straight live versions of the songs. I loved it this way.

There were only two songs I didn't know well enough to sing along to: Black Celebration (which actually I really like) and Higher Love (which I know but don't like hat much).

The choice of older older songs was absolutely brilliant: Enjoy the Silence (!), Personal Jesus (!!!) , Never Let Me Down Again (!!!!!! PERFECT end to the evening btw) and Just Can't Get Enough (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) particularly. I was both surprised and SUPER pleased that they did Barrel of A Gun.

I loved that Martin Gore got to do a few songs; I actually really love his voice, and I love Home and When the Body Speaks so I was very happy with those.

I liked the pacing of the show, the mix of fast bouncy dancey stuff and slower calmer songs worked really well.

As to the actual band: Dave Gahan was incredibly energetic all evening and is looking rather good. Sadly did not actually take his waistcoat off until near the end, oh well. He seemed to be having fun slinking around the stage though /shallow. His voice is amazing. Martin Gore still has terrible, terrible taste in clothing (shiny metallic tartan WHAT) and had a collection of oddly-shaped guitars. Andrew Fletcher... stood behind his keyboards and barely moved all evening.

Some photos from kikishua:






They're back at the O2 later in the year and I am seriously thinking about it. If you're a fan, I'd really recommend going to one of the shows (they're touring *everywhere*). It's the best concert I've ever been to and I enjoyed it SO MUCH.