Depeche Mode and Poe
Well, I went to the Depeche Mode concert here in Tampa last night. The last DM concert I went to was in '90 in Miami for the Violator tour. It was nice to see that most fans have not changed that much, just gotten stranger. And older. And the pot they smoke is not as good as it used to be, or so it smelled...

DM's new album, Exciter, is their best since Violator. Their song list was primarily Exciter and Violator, with a few SOFAD and Ultra tunes mixed in. I figured the furthest back they would go was Violator, which is their last good album. Not last great album, just good. The last GREAT album was Black Celebration, and their best is still Construction Time Again. Showing my age? Well, fuck you.

There were two surprises last night. One was DM's choice for their first encore song, which was Black Celebration. I did not expect them to go back to 1986 for a song for this concert, and that is NOT the song I would have chosen. They actually threw in Never Let Me Down Again from Music for the Masses as well, which is a better choice for an encore. The second surprise was the opening band, Poe.

Poe, a band which I had not heard of, put on a nice show. Their music was very well thought out, and the lead singer's voice was very powerful. Good stuff. Of course, all I could think of was my brother's reference to them getting up on stage and quoting "The Raven." At one point the singer asked if the crowd liked ghost stories and I shouted ":COOL! They are gonna read Fall of the House of Usher!!"