Last night, June 16, 2001 was a memorable night for thousands of Depeche Mode fans. They gathered at the spacious yet intimate Molson Amphitheatre where the band performed their second North American tour date in support of their new release, Exciter. Depeche Mode officially kicked off the Exciter tour in Montreal, but added two Canadian dates in Quebec and Ottawa as warm-up dates.
The opening act for the show was Poe, a composer, singer, producer, engineer and daughter of the late lecturer and award-winning documentary filmmaker Tad Danielewski (1962's No Exit, 1965's The Guide). Poe is the sexy female voice behind the narrative style song 'Hey Pretty', with her brother voice as the narrator in the song. Poe was energetic and a well-chosen first act. They will be touring with Depeche Mode for the entire North American leg of the Exciter tour.
As good as Poe was, the seats in the Amphitheatre were not yet filled until some time had gone by since Poe left the stage. As the sun began to set over the horizon, the stage was quickly prepared for Depeche Mode and the seats suddenly began to fill up. Within moments, the lights on the stage dimmed and supporting musicians Christian Eigner (drums), Peter Gordino (keyboards), Janet Ramus and Jordan Bailey (backing vocals) took their places on the stage, playing an instrumental clip of 'Dream On', the first single off Exciter. A few moments later, Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andrew Fletcher embraced the stage as the crowd went wild with applause.
Depeche Mode played quite a variety of songs, a mixture of current songs off of Exciter, but also treating fans to their older classics, such as songs from Black Celebration, and a good fraction of the set list also devoted to The Singles, such as 'It's No Good', 'Home', 'Personal Jesus', 'In Your Room' and many others. The set design was great, with a large screen in the back, reflecting beautiful images related to each song that was performed.
As if the songs were not enough to get the crowd up and dancing, Dave Gahan's sensual movements were the icing on the cake. At one point during a song, Dave got the crowd to do a spectacular ongoing wave, as well as sing along with and without him. There is no doubt that everyone at the Amphitheatre last night had a remarkable and memorable time.
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review by
VampAva
June 17th 2001
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