Walking in my shoes

Lots of people would have loved to walk in my shoes Thursday May 18^th… at Depeche Mode’s Toronto date of Touring the Angel 2005/2006 world tour.

I got the tickets a few minutes after it went on sale sometime on March, excited to see DM live… But to my big disappointment, when we were there, I realized that we had the crappiest seats ever: located on the side, at the same level as the stage, 3 rows from top. We could only see one side of the stage and therefore miss all the lights and video effects… Damn it.

There were a few empty spots in the Air Canada Center, so we were hunting for empty seats where we would sneak at the beginning of the concert… but then during the opening act, we decided to go right away to an empty section facing the stage, stay there and try to negotiate with the usher if he spots us. Ain’t got nothing to loose, let’s go…

We sit there as if we were in our seats… Everything goes smooth until an old usher, apparently of a higher rank starts talking to the ushers around the section we sat in, pointing at us and the few people sitting there. What’s going on !??

guess what…

We were kindly asked to move… DOWN TO THE FIRST ROW of the lower bowl, straight from the highest point in the arena to the lowest… No wayyy. Two sections strangely remained empty, so we were asked if we wanted to go there. You must be kidding me, of course, we do. We were still a bit far from the stage but WHO CARES !??? We were facing the stage and close enough to perfectly enjoy the show… EXCITING.

The crowd was very diverse, gray haired people to youngsters, this band has been around since the late 70s and they are still in very good shape, no matter what your age is, you will be rocked tonight.

Lights off, let the show begin…

The show starts with “Give me a pain that I am used to” introduced by very cool lights effects… The sound was perfect, the beats were so heavy that you couldn’t stay still, you had to move…

The set list was a mix of songs from the last album “playing the angel” like Give me a pain that I am used to, John the revelator, Suffer well, Precious and older big hits like Behind the wheel, Personal Jesus, Walking in my shoes, I feel you, Enjoy the silence…

The set list was really cool and the video effects changed with every song, the best intro was the one for I feel you… it was AWESOME !!!!! Dave Gahan is such a show man, he has the power to galvanize the crowd whenever he wanted… people were going crazy at each of his moves…it was really fun to be there

However, I left the show a bit disappointed. We were not full and didn’t have enough of the show. We were really enjoying it when they just left the stage after “Enjoy the silence” (a hint) to return for a very poor 3 songs encore: “shake the disease” performed by Martin Gore ballade style, photographic and then “Never let me down again” that I like a lot but it wasn’t enough to end the show. They just saluted us and left. The crowd was still there, asking for another encore for a couple of minutes until they turned on the lights… Everybody thought they will come back… they didn’t !!!!

We left the show with a taste of unfinished pleasure… There wasn’t that extra bonding with the crowd that makes shows memorable. They barely talked outside of the songs, the only things they said were the “thank yous” and the Dave Gahan’s signature “sing it” and “Come on”… They were just doing their job after all…

Some extra spices were missing, but the show was really good…

Vows are spoken
To be broken
Feelings are intense
Words are trivial
Pleasures remain
So does the pain
Words are meaningless
And forgettable

Enjoy the Silence
A.

Thursday may 18^th 2006, Toronto Air Canada Centre

Intro, A Pain That I’m Used To, A Question Of Time, Suffer Well, Precious, Walking In My Shoes, Stripped, Home, Judas, In Your Room, Nothing’s Impossible, John The Revelator, I Feel You, Behind The Wheel, World In My Eyes, Personal Jesus, Enjoy The Silence
Encore
Shake The Disease, Photographic, Never Let Me Down Again