Let’s get away

Just for one day

Let me see you stripped down to the bone

–”Stripped”, Depeche Mode

Hooray for our glorious holi-day, emphasis on the ‘one day’ part!

I can’t believe we have been to Seattle and back (and to the Harbour- again!) in less than 24 hours, but I wouldn’t change one solitary thing about our hectic past few days. Marty + me + Depeche Mode = one incredible love in!

Before I say anything else, let me just confirm that the Depeche Mode concert was totally amazing! We had awesome seats (thanks, ebay!) just hovering over one side of the stage, and we could see everything close up! Dave Gahan’s vocals were incredible (as usual), the energy of the crowd was great, and they sang my all-time favourite songs (probably because they knew I would be in attendance. I’m sure of this.) Even better than all of this (but totally not related to Depeche)– the Harbour got rained out while we were away, so every vendor paid for our one day holiday! Huzzah to that!

I was in disbelief the whole Clipper ride to Seattle. Yes, I had been waiting for this concert a very long time, but I couldn’t register that the big day was finally here. To help pass the 3-hour sailing time, Marty and I played the challenging ”Guess Who Is A Depeche Mode Fan” game. The boat was chock full of Canadian west coasters heading down for the concert– there wasn’t even one seat left on the Clipper!– but it was difficult for us to peg who was a DM fan and who just had the misfortune of booking a ticket during the unofficial DM Fan Club sailing to Seattle. The only people we identified as fans were two goth (?!) 20-somethings who were conveniently wearing Depeche Mode concert t-shirts and singing one of the singles off the new album. Sadly, we wouldn’t have picked them had it not been for their attire, so we sort of sucked at our own game. (We wore our exclusive DM pins so anybody playing the same game would be able identify us as fans… do we look like typical DM fans to you?)

Discrete but identifiable nonetheless

My disbelief continued as we wandered around Seattle, taking in the Pike Place Market and a few random street corners en route to our hotel. I had a hard time concentrating the whole afternoon– I was overstimulated and couldn’t get the De-peche Mode! De-peche Mode! chant out of my head.

Photographic proof that we were in Seattle!

Random Seattle alley way

(Aside: Yes, you read it correctly: we actually stayed in a hotel for our trip! We never stay in hotels, unless they are the cheap and run down emergency-pit-stop types in bad weather on the highway. Our hotel in Seattle was swanky, too! See photo below for evidence of swankiness:)

Swanky even after we had nearly fallen asleep on the bed, fully clothed, BEFORE the Depeche concert started!

Man, were we ever tired. Our bodies clued in to the fact that we were on a holiday and started using the precious time to go into sleep mode, repairing sore muscles and trying (in vain) to get us to rest a bit more. There were some times when I felt almost narcoleptic walking around, like I was in danger of collapsing into deep sleep in the middle of a crosswalk or something. The only thing (literally) that kept me awake was the thought that I was mere hours away from seeing Depeche in concert. That, and lots of coffee. Must. Stay. Awake!!

It never actually sunk in that we were going to see my favourite flippin’ band until they were right in front of us on the effin’ stage! And then it was a few magical hours of supreme bliss: All-consuming, foundation-shaking, swollen-heart bliss. Singing, dancing, sweating, arena-wide jazz hands, more singing, touching my heart when my the chords of my favourite songs started, etc., etc. It was so amazing!

[Of course, I was too worried about getting our only camera confiscated to risk bringing it to the arena. But everybody was taking pictures the whole night with all sorts of cameras... had I taken some, they might have looked like these:]

Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Vegan

Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Vegan

Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Vegan

Oh, who am I kidding– our camera takes crap shots in the dark, especially when people are moving around! Our shots would have been nothing but blur, so it’s best we left the camera in the hotel!

This whole Depeche tour has been plagued with cancellations and rescheduling. Dave (notice the first name basis now- me and the lead singer are tight!) has had gastroenteritis, removal of a cancerous bladder tumour, a torn calf muscle, etc. etc. I feel so lucky to have seen them in concert, especially because the very next concert date (tonight’s!) has also been cancelled due to vocal chord strain. Fate wanted us to see Depeche in concert. It’s true!

After the show, we collapsed onto our fancy hotel bed and woke up a mere 5 hours later to catch the first Clipper back to Victoria. When we docked, we went straight to the Harbour for a regular day of sales. It was like nothing had ever happened, except that something momentous and utterly earth shattering (to my little heart) had transpired so soon before. I [heart] Depeche Mode and seeing them live has been one of the best experiences of my life (for real!)