August 18, 2009

• This past night, I got to see Depeche Mode at the famous Hollywood Bowl. I went with a group of friends, and since we specifically planned to only see Depeche Mode, we didn’t leave home until after 7PM. So sorry to the opening band “Peter Bjorn and John,” if we didn’t see your act, but I’m sure you were good. Since this is in Los Angeles (Hollywood to be specific), the traffic was pretty bad. We got near the place more or less on time, but a half a mile away from the Hollywood Bowl, we really got stuck in traffic. So much so, that we spent about a half an hour in that half mile of road. My friend was dropping the seven of us off though, so we did not have to wait for parking at all, which is a blessing. We did the usual “pre-concert restroom break” then went in to find our seats, no later than about ten minutes before Depeche Mode started their set.

  As expected, I brought my digital camera to this concert. Now officially, cameras are not allowed in the Hollywood Bowl, but doing some research in forums about other people’s experiences, I was informed that as long as it isn’t a digital SLR, I should be fine. Just don’t make it obvious that I had a camera, and since they don’t do body pat downs, I can most likely walk right by the gate security with no issue. A friend of mine wanted to be extra careful, so she had my camera on her, and put her jacket on so that it wouldn’t show. It worked… I guess. There really wasn’t much in terms of a body check, as we literally just walked right in to get our tickets scanned. I think I could have worn my camera around my neck at the front and I wouldn’t have a problem. Anyways…

  When we got to our seats, we had to kick out these two guys who were sitting on a couple of them. This isn’t uncommon to happen in concerts, and usually the person would just apologize and move somewhere else. To our surprise, they were a lot more stubborn about moving, and we had to pull the “let us see your tickets” card. Turns out they were flirting with the two girls in front of our row, which is the reason why they did not want to leave.

  

  The Hollywood Bowl is a pretty large venue, but with a relatively small stage. Our seats were well pass the half way point of the venue, so we were in what I would consider the “nose bleed” section. It wasn’t that bad though, as the stage and the band were pretty visible. Ironically enough, I think that I had a closer view of the band via the 12x optical zoom of my digital camera. Once in awhile however, the video screens would show a close up of the band playing, so that was a good alternative to see the band. They had a nice big screen at the back of the stage, which showed various videos and clips that worked really well with the visual aesthetics of Depeche Mode’s performance.

  In terms of audio, the band sounded great playing hits we all know, as well as songs from their recent albums as well. Dave Gahan sang splendidly, and Martin Gore always did lead vocals for a couple of songs. The occasional times the audience were asked to sing the lyrics were also great, as this was a huge group to do a sing along with (sold out show with 17,000+ seating capacity). There was a problem with feedback for one of their songs however, but most of us did not care.

  Now I think it’ll be humorous of me to mention that several of the ladies I was with in my seating area were not shy to scream out their excitement of being there. In fact, all you got to do is watch any one of the videos I recorded from the show to see what I mean. They were definitely an energetic bunch, but it was enough that some of the other people around us were actually annoyed to the point of calling security on them. hhmm, first thing to say to that is… really? Sure they could have toned it down a bit, but it’s a rock concert, people yell and scream. Does somebody really need to be singled out for being “too loud?” Well security did in fact come by and had a talk with them, but as it was expected, nothing came out of it. I did realize that I was visibly using my camera at that moment, recording a song on video, and security was a few feet away from me. Luckily, they either did not care about the “no camera policy,” or they actually did not see me.

  Depeche Mode played roughly two hours long, and I believe was 21 songs. They had two sets of encores that they did, and at the end when the band did their bow to the audience and walked off stage, it looked like it was done. The lights of the venue did not go on though, so I thought “one more encore?” No, not really. A minute later the lights came on, so we took that as our cue to finally leave. With roughly 17,000+ people leaving at once, and there being only one exit to the venue, we came upon “people traffic” as the huge crowd created a bottle neck, stalling us from exiting quick. My friend was waiting outside to pick us up too, and was waiting about a half hour while he was illegally parked (sorry dude). The whole show was great over all, and it’s always great to see a well seasoned band like Depeche Mode perform live to a huge enthusiastic audience such as this one was.

  * click here for photos taken from the show *
  
  * click here for videos I took from the show *

  

  • 8:45 am
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