2009-06-10 Olympiastadion, Berlin, Germany

Notes

Here is the diary entry for Depeche Mode's official tour blog:

Somewhere in Germany...

On my way home for a bit of R&R. Two shows in and I am already aching all over. Anyway... Depeche played to a packed Olympiastadion in Berlin last night. The renovated site of the 1936 Olympics (where Jesse Owens made history) proved a great setting for a great gig. Despite the best efforst of M83 and Polarkreis 18 to get everyone pumped up and ready, it did take the audience a bit of time to warm up. But dammit did they make up for it in the last two thirds of the show. Every song was greeted with a roar, and the energy in the place was simply amazing.

Former label mates and old time friends of Depeche, Nitzer Ebb was in the house, which spawned an impromptu addition of a few lines from "Lightning Man" being added to the lyrics of "Enjoy The Silence", making the LiveHereNow recording from this show an instant must-have! Dave also dedicated "Never Let Me Down Again" to Doug and Bon.

The after show party was a good bit of fun. In addition to the usual suspects, I'm sure I spotted Richie Hawtin, Dave Gooday and the members of A-Ha there.

author: Peter

Douglas McCarthey and Bon Harris of Nitzer Ebb also attended the concert. Douglas later said about Dave's gesture to him and Bon: "I am, admittedly, a sentimental fool, but I truly wept. With that one gesture, those few words, and that song, Dave summed up over two decades of love, happiness, heartbreak and sorrow. What a bastard."

German musicians Thomas Fehlmann and Gudrun Gut, as well as Daniel Miller, were also in attendance.

This was only 1 of 3 concert from this tour (the others being Luxembourg and Leipzig) where the screen projection to 'Strangelove' (showing a woman licking another woman's toes) was shown in its entirety. In other cities, the screen either turned to red completely after about two minutes, or it got a red glare, making the footage almost indistinguishable. Andy Fletcher explained in August 2009 that the band debated a lot as to whether the foot fetishism was "OTT," over the top. "We sort of are quite risqué. But it's different now. We do have families. Dave has an 8-year-old daughter. Martin has kids. In the end we've sort of compromised [and cut out the naughtiest bits]. But to be honest, the main reason for the compromise is that during 'Strangelove' people were watching the screen and not watching us! But don't worry, the first two minutes [of the video] is good enough."

Dave Gahan wrote Shine after this concert. Quote:

Q: As you mentioned “Shine”, the opening track: Any particular reason why you wrote that in Berlin, in the middle of Europe?

A: Well, it was actually inspired by an amazing concert that we did there, in a huge stadium in Berlin. And on that particular night - it was one of those nights where, as a performer, everything just fell into place. There was a fantastic atmosphere, beautiful night. My voice was working, everything was working, I could, you know…

Q: So it was one of those magic moments?

A: Yeah, one of those magic moments that sometimes happen on tour, and everything’s in the right place at the right time. And it’s one of those things, when you look around as well, at each other on stage, you all kind of know that it’s happening. So I went back after that concert and these words just, and a melody line sort of came into my head. So I quickly recorded it into my computer, and put it away. And when Rich sent me a guitar line later on - the slidey sort of blues guitar line - I heard the whole thing kind of in my head. And with this big beat. And it all made sense. It’s very simple, it’s a very simple song with a very simple message. But it fit perfectly after that particular performance.

Official video blog:

NOTE: This concert was officially released by Live Here Now and at one point sold on the official depechemodelive.com, which is currently defunct. Concerts with LHN releases generally do not have audience recordings widely circulating, and as such there may not be a recording available on this website for this concert.

Set list

1. In Chains
2. Wrong
3. Hole To Feed
4. Walking In My Shoes
5. It's No Good
6. A Question Of Time
7. Precious
8. Fly On The Windscreen
9. Jezebel (*)
10. A Question Of Lust (*)
11. Come Back
12. Peace
13. In Your Room
14. I Feel You
15. Policy Of Truth
16. Enjoy The Silence
17. Never Let Me Down Again
18. Stripped
19. Master And Servant
20. Strangelove
21. Personal Jesus
22. Waiting For The Night

Set list info obtained from the Home forum.

Ticket

Credit to pimpf.ru. The ticket is signed by a-ha's Morten Harket; for the backstory regarding that signature, click the photo and then click "More details".