2009-08-04 Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, USA
Notes
According to Billboard, this concert and 2009-08-03 Madison Square Garden, New York, NY, USA were sold out (26,860 people) and together they grossed $2,452,781.
Here is the diary entry for Depeche Mode's official tour blog:
Slowly recovering from two nights at Madison Square Garden. A couple of really great days was had in the city that never sleeps (it just gets kinda moody and quiet for a couple of hours).
So different being here compared to Europe. Being a union hall, there are very strict rules about who can do what when at MSG, which had some - for me - rather unexpected consequences. On the day of the first show, stage construction came to a grinding halt for exactly one hour at 1pm, which is normally crunch time. No one was allowed to do anything. This phenomena, lovingly called "dark stage" on the schedule, was repeated between 7 and 8pm, which left support band Peter, Bjorn & John with all of 25 minutes to play. Just one of those things, I suppose.
The band did a nice long soundcheck on Monday, rehearsing "In Sympathy" and "Miles Away", along with a few show regulars, such as "Walking In My Shoes". Still weirds me out seeing the band play to a crowd of maybe 10 people. Very nice. "Miles Away" of course ended up being added to the set for the Tuesday show, while "In Sympathy" is apparently being held back for now. Both tracks sounded great.
The atmosphere on the tour is simply fantastic at the moment. The band all had various family members come out to New York, and Jonathan Kessler celebrated his birthday while here, complete with a great big birthday cake and all.
There were so many people at the after show party, that I almost certainly missed a whole bunch of people, but I did spot Kap10kurt (who you will know from the "Sounds Of The Universe" live session that's on the box set DVD), Sune Wagner of The Raveonettes (new album dropping soon - "In And Out Of Control"), the guys from La Roux, Graham Finn (from Dave's Hourglass band) and a whole bunch of other people. Oh, and we mustn't forget the living Mode legends Ginger and Franksy.
The shows were amazing. The roughly 18.000 audience members got so loud it easily rivaled some of 40k+ shows in Europe. Sure being in-doors helps, but still, I was incredibly impressed. And maybe it was just me, but I do think being back in his adopted home town made Dave go for it a bit more. Made for some very entertaining shows.
It's a shame we weren't able to film any of it (one of those union regulations things), but hopefully some more photos kind of makes up for it.
After a couple of days off in New York, the band are moving on to Chicago to play Lollapalooza, and then it's on to the west coast!
Mode on!
author: Peter
According to a 2008 tour list uploaded by PeterToo, this concert was initially planned to take place on 2009-08-30.
Video
Set list
- In Chains
- Wrong
- Hole To Feed
- Walking In My Shoes
- It's No Good
- A Question Of Time
- Precious
- Fly On The Windscreen
- Jezebel (*)
- A Question Of Lust (*)
- Miles Away / The Truth Is
- Policy Of Truth
- In Your Room
- I Feel You
- Enjoy The Silence
- Never Let Me Down Again
- Stripped
- Master And Servant
- Strangelove
- Personal Jesus
- Waiting For The Night
Set list info obtained from the Home forum.
Sources
- Source 1 is a decent audience recording.
