Depeche Mode Tour Films POLL

http://media.depechemode.com/micro_sites/archives/gr/discography/home_video/titles_covers/01_hamburg.jpg
http://media.depechemode.com/micro_sites/archives/gr/discography/home_video/titles_covers/04_101.jpg
http://media.depechemode.com/micro_sites/archives/gr/discography/home_video/titles_covers/06_devotional.jpg
http://media.depechemode.com/micro_sites/archives/gr/discography/home_video/titles_covers/10_onenightinparis.jpg
http://media.depechemode.com/micro_sites/archives/gr/discography/home_video/titles_covers/16_ttamilan.jpg

101, easy.

Yeah, I posted the images separately because I didn't want to f*** up the html in creating the poll.

xpost

I have always preferred Devotional -- beautiful staging, beautifully shot, plus a better setlist! (songs from Violator + SOFAD > almost every song on "101" that wasn't on "Music For the Masses")

Recently rewatched both 101 and Devotional and both are pretty key. 101's its own brilliant universe -- film a documentary about the band without making the band a centerpiece and let everything around it all speak for itself -- but building on what NoTime just said, rewatching Devotional for the first time in years was almost shocking, the sheer lushness of the colors and the brilliance of the staging, it's Corbijn in excelsis and capture the baroque feeling of everything about the band at the time. Best argument for persistent overexposure in a long time.

One Night in Paris is enjoyable enough, Corbijn in calmer mode, and Touring the Angel suffers a bit from 'hey I'm a young director and I have up to date techniques I want to show you all!' syndrome, but "Goodnight Lovers" is shot and edited very well indeed.

Though to add, one of the things I find so compelling about 101 is what NoTime noted -- by default since there's nothing after Music for the Masses what I always come away with was the realization of not only how they owned that Rose Bowl crowd but how all the absolutely huge pop hits were still to come! There's something breathtaking about that.

If I were judging this solely based on song quality, then I'd pick "Live in Milan", because "Playing the Angel" was such an awesome album plus you have all the other live essentials. But it's a strain to try to keep up with all the quick cuts and rapid zooms and flashing lights for two hours, it's like watching the same MTV Video Awards performance on a 20X loop. "One Night In Paris" is nice and mellow and it's shot by Corbijn, but if it's Corbijn you want then "Devotional" is a much more dynamic and exciting show (and the stage setup for that tour was his best -- like Ned wrote, this is so U&K to what makes that film so great.)

(songs from Violator + SOFAD > almost every song on "101" that wasn't on "Music For the Masses")

uh waht

in the continuing saga of ned and HI DERE shaming me re DM: i have never actually seen any of these

keep yr eyes out, Posters Came From the Walls

in the continuing saga of ned and HI DERE shaming me re DM: i have never actually seen any of these

eh, I haven't either, I'm just stunned by the total disregard for Black Celebration being shown on this thread

I mean, just as a quick example, there's no fucking way that "Rush" or "In Your Room" are better than "A Question of Lust", "A Question of Time" or "Stripped".

in the continuing saga of ned and HI DERE shaming me re DM: i have never actually seen any of these

OUT.

eh, I haven't either

Do I know you? Not even 101? *Really*?

One nice thing about DVDs is that it's easy to put on a concert film and turn off the TV/monitor and just enjoy the music, which is how I like 'watching' Touring the Angel for the reasons described.

I owned the CDs for 101 before they were taken in The Great Robbery of 1991 but I've never seen a DM concert video.

Believe me when I say that when you watch 101 you will kick yourself for not watching it sooner. Endlessly quotable film and by default now an indelible monument to time and place.

ive heard 101 because of the albums (i think i had them on lol cassette), so i guess i would vote for that. like dan i am sort of stunned by the bias for post MFTM material, but weve been over this on a couple other threads so ill shut up about it until i investigate further

xpostsss

ok fine i will go netflix

Yes you should. And I'm not biased for the later material at all, that's NoTime's cross to bear!

songs from Violator + SOFAD > almost every song on "101" that wasn't on "Music For the Masses"

OK, I was vague for a reason (using "almost" and avoiding using words like "all"), but what I meant was: put the Violator + SOFAD songs from "Devotional" on side A of a mixtape, the non-MFTM from "101" on side B, and I'll be constantly rewinding to the start of side A and flipping the tape over occasionally to hear "Stripped".

I figured I owed it to myself to do some "research" (hahaha) for this poll, so I youtubed the Live In Hamburg show because I'm not sure I'd ever seen it ... the videography is nothing special (no big surprise) but the band sounds fantastic (ah, the good old days when sets opened with "Something To Do", and don't miss the killer version of "Master and Servant").

I also re-watched (most of) "Live and Milan" but afterward, I switched to a short clip of "Devotional", and after five seconds there was already no doubt. The staging and tour videos are simply breathtaking.

have only seen the middle three, but Devotional takes it from that lineup.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Haha, not surprising. But it and Devotional really are hard to compare, they're very different in intent and execution.

Believe me when I say that when you watch 101 you will kick yourself for not watching it sooner. Endlessly quotable film and by default now an indelible monument to time and place.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, April 2, 2009 5:14 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OOOOOOOOOOOTM

lol still have not seen 101

hey jjj, next time I am in MN maybe we should have a 101 party

(this was on BBC 4 last night.)

i was never really a depeche mode fan and i'm not now, but 101 is an incredible movie and makes me understand their appeal. and yeah, as a snapshot of a particular moment in time in the united states it brought a whoooole lot flooding back.

it's impossible not to wonder what's happened to the fans we follow on tour. impossible. i loved how totally open and eager all of them were (except for the creepy jock, obv, though even he seemed to loosen up in the end). i did have a quick google (duh) and the impossibly good looking dude who dyes his hair blonde is now a big kahuna on the burning man scene and has had a few parts in a few movies and tv shows. of the rest it appears there is no record.

i also had no idea that dave gahan used to take such pleasure in beating people up.

I'm not much of Depeche Mode fan and 101 is one of my favorite movies period. Captures being a fan and being in a band so amazingly well. Love it.

Three of the tour bus group got featured in "where are they now" clips on the DVD rerelease. One of them, Oliver, is better known now as the Horrorist.

And yes the fact that DJP and Mr Justen STILL haven't seen this, OMG WTF.

You Tube is a frickin goldmine for DM 101 era

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNc_L452zqw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaoJ0OLT7Qw

"101" is such a great film, underscoring both the power of being a fan and a band on the cusp of giant things. The group is so young and still figuring their way around things. But then you see them perform and how the fans react and it all makes sense. My favorite bit of the film comes at the end, when the band is basking in Rose Bowl adulation, and the management team is in a trailer, doing the math, adding up the mundane minutia of costs, such as replacing damaged portions of the grass field. Just incredible all around, a totally neutral snapshot of an era when you could be selling out stadiums and still exist/subsist somewhat under the radar. I know Pennebaker has often cited it as his favorite, and that really says something.

Always thought this captured it well

http://media.depechemode.com/main_site/2009_discography_498px/singles/25_everythingcounts101.jpg

I just read some DM bio and it was interesting to me how passive they were, aesthetically and everything, in their early years. Like figuring out who they were but muddled by having not very well-aligned people do the figuring out for them and just not being willing to speak up! I think they'd gotten over that hump by the time 101/Music for the Masses was out, enough to have some really gripping confidence and excellent songs. But also still had the exciting potential to grown and change more. I like Violator & everything after but I think 101 is a great document of what is really my favorite era of DM.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8TXjhWCQPE

I know Pennebaker has often cited it as his favorite, and that really says something.

Rightfully so, I think. All the other ones he did in the sixties/early seventies are all weighted down by the continuing Boomer grip on things so contextually 101 feels fresher, but also it dwells on things the others really don't. And by not making it about The Great Artist Whoever It is it also succeeds as well -- heck, given how everything works, people might be forgiven for thinking that Gahan is the lyricist and Alan Wilder writes the music.

There was a typically dismissive Rolling Stone review when it was released in early 1989 going on about the band being anonymous cyborgs and not caring about the featured teens, along with wondering how Pennebaker could have stooped to this. Talk about not getting it.

One of them, Oliver, is better known now as the Horrorist.

holy shit!! the guy with the amazingly styled hair and soft sad eyes, who didn't want one of the girls to put her face cream on him? !!!!!!!!!!!

The guy that made records about trawling NY for drugs? And using said drugs to make underage girls more 'compliant' ?

(Obv saying these were 'character studies', not his actual MO)

Yes to both of that. In the 101 DVD bonus clip talking with him, there's a brief shot of a feature story or review of him done by Simon Reynolds, which I always thought was amusing.

When Alan McGee started up his multimedia "Poptones" label/website, one of his 'missives' was raving about "One night in NYC", I couldn't help thinking "If it's that great, then LICENSE IT ya pussiah!"

that whole conversation between the jock and the girl who was studying to be a fashion designer brought back a lot of memories. a lot of time was spent in those days differentiating between what was REAL and what was SUPERFICIAL and FAKE. the visual punchline to that conversation was absolutely priceless - after this long, incoherent rant to these (incredibly appealing) girls about how fashion is FAKE and not "art", which is REAL (QED), talking over them the whole time and totally ignoring what they're saying, they finally get a word in edgewise: "so what are YOU wearing? what's that?" "cut off jeans! i've been wearing cut off jeans for 15 years!" and he turns and walks away and you see the cut-offs, which reach his knees and are actually CUFFED there, probably the doofiest possible legwear imaginable, and the girls just crack up

What was that last line to the camera, "He knows nothing about fashion, right?" Something like that.

I keep going on about the DVD version -- trust me, it's great -- but the commentary gets some priceless moments in; it's Pennebaker and his partner, whose name I am sadly forgetting, talking with each of the three current members as stitched together from separate sessions, and when they get to that part they're loving the whole debate for pretty much all the reasons you just specified! Except maybe the jeans part, can't recall.

haha i will have to get the DVD! i mean all else aside it is just a leeetle ironic that the jock has such a profound attachment to his idea that visual style is utterly worthless while at the same time his favorite band is..... depeche mode.

The whole series of contrasts over who is supposed to be a 'typical' Depeche fan as set against anyone else is a hilarious/telling subtext of the entire film. The truck stop denizens, the Latino Guns'n'Roses fans...

"guns and posers! haha! haha! guns and posers."

Our own Mr. Soto has now seen and believed:

http://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/theyll-go-down-on-their-knees-depeche-mode-101/

best part of that whole argument with the art girl and the guy is that, at the start of the Rose Bowl gig near the end the 2 of them look very cosy, she's got his arm round him and they're dancing together! it's cute!

Depeche crosses all boundaries.

One of my favourite moments in 101 is the hysterical screaming chick during 'Blasphemous Rumours'. Man, she's a bit intense isn't she!? I wonder what she thinks whenever she watches herself on 101 these days.

The whole series of contrasts over who is supposed to be a 'typical' Depeche fan as set against anyone else is a hilarious/telling subtext of the entire film. The truck stop denizens, the Latino Guns'n'Roses fans...

― Ned Raggett, Monday, February 13, 2012 4:42 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"guns and posers! haha! haha! guns and posers."

― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Monday, February 13, 2012 4:53 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Didn't that guy meet Axl Rose at the premiere of 101? I remember hearing some hilarious story about it.

If I had been voting in this poll at the time it would have been a very very tough choice between 101 and Devotional. Touring The Angel is my favourite of the post-Wilder tourfilms (Great setlist, love the stage design), whereas I've always found One Night In Paris a bit on the dull side, not just because the setlist is (at it obviously would be) a bit 'Exciter'-heavy (an album I've never really liked), but the way it's filmed makes the shows seem really bland. I went to one of the 'Exciter' shows in the UK and my dad went to the shows in Paris, and both of us felt the same way about the film.

To put it simply, One Night In Paris doesn't make me want to BE there. Whereas when I watch 101, Devotional or Touring The Angel, they make me kick myself that I wasn't able to attend.

Showed 101 for a friend last night who had never seen it and has been a Depeche fan for years. I still can't believe the amount of people who you'd think would have seen it by now but still haven't LIKE DJP AND JJJ FOR INSTANCE but anyway. Anyway, still fantastic, will never not be.

101 concert, 25 years old as of tomorrow.

watched 101 for the first time. i did not know about the audience arm-wavey thing. so dorky and so beautiful. left and right and left and right and left and right and left and right...

A friend of mine back in 1992 or so said it looked like those films of seafloor plants you see where the currents drag them to and fro.

i've since watched many youtube clips of subsequent live versions of never let me down again and it's <3 <3 <3 how happy it makes gahan to do this. he gets to wear the metaphorical trousers and he's digging it.

is the rose bowl show the first time they've played to an audience that large, anywhere? there's some stuff tom wolfe discusses in electric kool-aid acid test (iirc) vis-à-vis the beatles and stadium crowds and gahan twigs that in an instant during this song. the placement is perfect. workmanlike brick-laying with the clunky rhythms and plink-plonky melody, holding you down tight, then rumbling tremors and dissociation with the middle section from the remix version, and then release! and transcendence with the synth angel chorus. hands! hands! to the heavens, to the stars! take that energy and throw it right back, magnified. see the stars they're shining bright, everything is all right tonight. we'll see the stars that shine so bright, everything will be all right, tonight. i figure the iggy references are a given but i dunno. i'm taking a ride with my best friend; i am a passenger.

i love those dickhead kids in the movie and i miss them already.

pretty boys and pretty girls
spreading joy to the world

these fucking kids, i love how the doc inverts the fan/ performer dichotomy. the kids/ fans are awesome; the band are there to provide the backdrop. those kids were more excited to have been in the audience than they were when they met actually their idols: tbf it was alan and andy not martin or dave.

i think hat was def a better decision than no hat. so cute.

liveblogging from 1988

Had an interesting experience a couple of years ago showing 101 for the first time to someone who pretty much hates DM, or at least hates everything from DM after 101 and therefore had not listened to the band at all in decades. He was really blown away by it, both as a film and as a document.

is the rose bowl show the first time they've played to an audience that large, anywhere?

Yup, pretty much. I'd have to check their gig history to see if they played larger festivals in Europe -- always a possibility -- and they had had a huge wave already in Germany but I'm pretty sure this was their then top limit. (IIRC the Dodger Stadium shows just two years later for Violator were even bigger...I think.)

Time to rewatch some of these, it's been a while. "One Night in Paris" seems to get better with time. Corbijn is directing their next DVD too.

My favourite part of "101" is the first two minutes of this clip. I could watch it on a loop all day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYRdZWVWRGY

It's so amazing to see the insane crowd anticipation together with the "long walk" of the band, they're trying to be cool about the whole thing for the cameras but you can see that they're nervous as hell. For me it's the most revealing moment of the film.

The most revealing moment of the film for me is when the band is riding high on the monumental success of the night, while the manager and other business folks are bunkered down sussing out the cost of turf replacement and the like.

Watching "devotional" again, I can totally see the recipe for disaster. Band at or near the peak of its popularity, Gahan out there away from the rest of the band, with nowhere to hide, carrying almost all of the performance himself ... I can only imagine the pressure he was under, let alone the pressure to be a "rock star."

He was carrying the performance himself in "101" too. "Devotional" is the culmination of that process, not the start of it. But moving to LA and hanging out with "real" rock stars and wanting to be one himself obviously didn't help.

Been a while since I saw "101," but in "Devotional," he can't even make eye contact with the band! It seems like a more extreme version of, yes, the ascent that began around "101." So a culmination, sure, but the staging appears to go above and beyond to isolate him.

I've read funny accounts from Charlie Watts about what it's like the be stuck back on the drum stool while the stages get bigger and bigger and wider and wider. Basically, he just goes about his business, and every once in a while someone runs in front of him. Or he'll go several songs without knowing where Mick even is.

So, I never got very into Depeche Mode. I had a couple of the Violator singles in junior high, but they were always playing second fiddle to the Cure for me at that time. I've tried at various points to get into them again, mostly by listening to the stretch of albums from Black Celebration through Songs of Faith and Devotion, but they still never really landed for me.

Dug into the 101 album the past two days because Jenny Lee Lindberg from Warpaint recommended a track from it and everything has just fallen into place for me. I haven't been able to compare it with the source material to decide if the performances are any better or if it's just the addition of crowd noise that transforms it for me, but I feel like now I really like Depeche Mode.

I've just been soaking it up and read this thread and now am really enthused to seek out the film which is available on youtube with Deutsche Untertitel but I have so much work to do today there's no way I'm going to be able to get away with watching a two-hour movie.

Get tickets for the upcoming tour, I'd say!

It's pretty far afield for me. I might go see them if they come back to the U.S.

My favorite thing about "101" and that performance of "Everything Counts" (it's the last song, right?) is that the whole show ends with this huge, emotional moment, of everyone singing along, and the band triumphant, exultant. And then it cuts to the bean counters in the trailer, tallying the money, paying the bills, calculating how much it will cost to replace the sod ...

(At least that's how I remember it.)

It cuts back and forth over a couple of songs.

Well well well

https://store.rhino.com/artist/depeche-mode/101-deluxe-edition.html

There will be a standalone Blu-ray as well.

And tied in with that release, which is now out: my piece on the film and its inadvertant legacies and complications for the Quietus:

https://thequietus.com/articles/30946-depeche-mode-101