delara, interrupted

What do spinning madly with microphone stand in hand, pelvic gyrations that make Elvis' look amateur, and cutting edge electronic and video displays all have in common? They are trademarks of the one and only Depeche Mode, who ROCKED the Allstate Arena last night! Although, you wouldn't know it by the crowd immediately surrounding our seats. C'mon people!!! You call yourselves fans when you sat (yes, I said SAT!) through the first 6 songs or so? Pathetic.

But I digress... The concert was amazing - further proof that some things do, in fact, get better with age and are well-worth the money to experience. Dave still has his trademark moves down pat. Fletch is still the low-key, stoic, masterful keyboardist and producer (although some argue that Alan was the one who made it all come together - I disagree). And Martin is still the wild child, dressed in a funky, furry hat, black leather outfit, and black angel wings. Absolutely fantastic.

The set was a glorious mix of new and old - they played more than half of the tracks from the newest album "Playing the Angel" and included an awesome mix of older tracks - although, music from Exciter was conspicuously absent.

They opened with a bang, as I thought they might, with the energetic first track off their new album, A Pain That I'm Used To, and followed it with John The Revelator - my second favorite track on the album. They followed these two new tracks with a couple of classics: A Question Of Time, and Policy Of Truth. Then they played a luscious live version of Precious - much more moody than on the album, which I LOVED hearing. Amazing. The rest of the set went a little something like this:

• Walking In My Shoes
• Suffer Well
• Damaged People
• Home
• I Want It All
• The Sinner In Me
• I Feel You
• Behind The Wheel
• World In My Eyes
• Personal Jesus
• Enjoy The Silence

So, you'd think this was a good way to end, yes? Oh no!!! Two - count 'em: TWO - extra sets! Wahoo! What energy. The first encore started with Somebody, which Martin crooned like there was no tomorrow - the crowd ate it up! This is one of my favorite love songs of all time. I think I almost cried listening to it live. (Almost.) Sigh... They followed with Just Can't Get Enough and ended with Everything Counts.

For the second encore, they busted out Never Let Me Down Again (I would have asked for my money back if they hadn't played this) and finally ended with a track from Exciter - Goodnight Lovers. Thank goodness for that - I was wondering if they were going to play anything from Exciter!

It was a fantastic experience - and even more enjoyable that Farren, Myk and Meisa got to experience it with me. Wahoo! We had a blast. Totally energized me for the work ahead of me this week. I just hope the feeling lasts... "Nothing's impossible..." right?