David McElroy asked me to collaborate with his concert review project once again. You can read my review of the February 13th 2024 Berlin show on his blog Almost Predictable Almost. Yes, I will make you read it on his site. 😀
I was so very honored to have been invited to attend the press conference yesterday here in Berlin. What’s there to say? It’s impossible to look at the stage and not miss that extra chair with Fletch. The event would have probably lasted longer if he were around with his witty answers. It’s incredible that they managed to work on the album in such secrecy far better than before. The ideas were already going back and forth between Martin and Dave since the pandemic got us all locked down in 2020. All of the songs and even the grim title had been chosen before Andrew’s passing. Everything suddenly got a new meaning now.
Football jokes aside, after so many press conferences, we know that the band already says upfront what they are going to talk about and what they’re not. The journalists were really rather shy when they had the chance to ask them directly. Even I nearly raised my hand to end the awkward silence. I just didn’t have a question to make that I know that they could answer (and not about geography). In fact, Barbara Cherone, the interviewer, sort of exhausted the questions about the album and the tour that could be made.
The tour kicks off in North America this time with what seems like a warm-up, then heads to Europe for a stadium summer leg. I’m sure more dates will be added.
So many years and Marek Lieberberg still calls Dave GaRRÂN (it’s more like “gone” or “gawn”).
I got so excited with this 2nd anniversary of the legendary final shows of the GST in Berlin… that I left the last chapter escape the date itself. But dates are just numbers on a calendar. If you followed this far, I left off on July 23rd, 2018, the day we had the “hard wrap” of filming my scenes and I went off to see the first of the two concerts later that evening. Being part of that crew, even if for 4 days, I couldn’t help but share their feeling of accomplishment after a long and hard job around the world. This would be the first of two times I felt that in 3 days.
On July 24th, which was ironically my only “free day” between Friday, 20th and Wednesday 25th, 2018, I had to optimize my commitments all into: meeting friends from all over the world who were in town for the show in the morning, meet my co-stars as we checked in at the hotel (for logistic purposes I got to stay in a hotel in my own city; no one wanted our schedule to suffer delays because I was late to catch my U-Bahn and meet the rest of the guys and the crew), and later, a dinner with other Facebook Takeoverees at the Italian restaurant located on the same building as the Hansa Tonstudios (I ordered pizza; no Toast Hawaii for me, thanks), because later that evening there was a party inside the “Big Hall by the Wall”. If you’ve never been there, it can get very hot in the summer. The windows don’t open fully. It quickly turns into a sauna. And I was very exhausted. As much as I wanted to see and say hi to everyone, I also had a busy day ahead of me that started with meeting Anton at 10am the next morning and leaving by bus to the Waldbühne. I did what I could to at least say a few words to each friend I met that day.
We were all interviewed by Anton on the bus on the way to the venue. For whatever artistic reasons he found applicable, he decided to not include them, except the part where Dicken pours his heart about trying to cover “Precious” and the importance for an artist to send his or her political statements through their works in times like ours. I was actually the first one to be interviewed simply because I was sitting closer to the front of the bus. Unlike the rest of the documentary, we were not “prepped” for this interview ahead. We didn’t even know what subjects he would talk about with us. Anton may blame English not being his first language, but he is an enigmatic character and sometimes not so easy to understand right away, no matter the language. He asked if I thought that Depeche Mode changed a lot from show to show. What exactly did he mean? From one night to another? Can’t be, they usually make slow changes to the setlist as the tour progresses into several legs, but consecutive nights in different cities tend to have the same setlist. Did he mean from one tour to another? Was he talking about his own stage designs and short films (in which case I’d be in an awkward situation should I dare say anything negative about them to his face)? It was so unclear and I was so embarrassed to make Mr. Anton Corbijn repeat himself that I somehow weaseled my way out if it with a yes-no answer that probably only made sense to me.
A much easier question to which I gave the best answer possible (without previous knowledge of the setlist) was: what song I wanted to hear them play that night. Without a second thought I said: “The Things You Said”. Anton then became silent, stared ahead as if trying to making something out of my very complex answer. Maybe he was expecting “Enjoy The Silence”? I don’t know. They did play “The Things You Said” that night. It was a highlight of the last leg and the last show. Apart from the fact that I was wearing my Ray-Ban Wayfarer the entire bus trip (he said it was my choice to wear it during the interview or not, so I chose to stick to my 80-ish look), this scene would have made an incredible introduction to including even a snippet of TTYS into the documentary. But I already talk about economy before “Everything Counts”, I get to tell the importance of Bowie and “Heroes” to the band. And I recall some tough times I went through in my coming out experience with “Walking in my Shoes” as the soundtrack. So it’s more than made up for.
Right after our arrival, Anton gave us a tour of the stage and it’s unique narrow concrete corridor built full of sharp corners, so Adolf-you-know-who could have had better chances at escaping firearms shots at him (he was already aware he was not THAT popular by the time the Waldbühne was built as part of the 1936 Olympic ensemble of which the neighboring Olympiadstadion is part of). And at the end of the corridor: the stage! I confess it was cool to see the stage from up there, but not mindblowing. It’s just the stage… seen from the stage. This being my 10th concert of the tour, it’s hard to think I’d find any surprises. The gear was covered. The band wasn’t there. We got to wander around and take some picture, but that was it. Oh, and Fletch’s stand is slightly higher than Peter’s. That’s your GST trivia of the day.
Then, to summarize the rest of that afternoon: we were free to roam the venue. Dicken and his kids made a small perfomance while the first part of the audience was entering. Despite not included in our VIP pass, they did let us eat from the catering (c’mon, we were there since noon). And we got to meet the guys from DAF! This is particularly touching considering the recent loss of Gabi Delgado. I’m not sure if the crowd understood the relevance of DAF opening for Depeche Mode. DAF were on Mute Record BEFORE Depeche Mode. That says it all. It almost mirrors when Fad Gadget went back into action and opened several concerts of the Exciter Tour in 2001, and then sadly passed away the following year.
For the main feature of the night, we were escorted to our two not-so-secret little areas in the crowd so they could film us from the side. As we were not supposed to stare at the cameras either, we were split into 2 groups (Indra, Dicken and his kids on one side and Carine, Liz, Cristian and I on the exact opposite). Apart from this slightly inconvenient of having a camera on your face all the time, we did manage to not stare into them all concert long. Anton wanted authenticity. He wanted our most genuine reactions. None of those close up shots were rehearsed. We had no insider tip of the setlist. We were being surprised just like everyone else that night. I didn’t mess up any lyrics when it shows me singing “Where’s The Revolution” and “Heroes”. I passed my self-imposed test of “not being the goth girl crying in despair” during “Blasphemous Rumours” on “101”.
After the apotheotic ending of the show, that’s when the second “wrap up” feeling hit me. This crew (or a big part of it) had been traveling around the globe for more than a year. They became one family. Yet, like at the end of any concert, they have to hurry up to get everyone out and start disassembling the gear. I could almost see tears in their eyes as they were still doing their job. For whatever reason, some of us got leave on a van first, but I stayed behind. This was when I finally gave in and drank some beers with the DAF guys whose dressing container was next to ours. I had avoided all alcohol that hot day. I didn’t want to have to leave for the little boys’ room during the show. But I smuggled some 6 or 7 bottles of mineral water on my cargo shorts. You can see how my light grey shirt is already dark grey by the last song. That’s all sweat! Also real sweat, as Anton wanted. Not fake sprayed water over my sexy body for visual effects.
The next day I couldn’t do anything. I checked out of the hotel, went back home and slept the rest of the day. The entire day! Those 6 days blended together into one thing, but I got to recover and resume my life that I had put on hold since Friday, the 20th (and my husband so gracefully understood how important it was to me and freed me of some our shared shores during that period). Exhausted, but happy to have experienced all of this. Thank you, Depeche Mode!
I’ve been mostly just linking to articles, reviews and interviews about “Spirits in the Forest” and… I’m about to just link to another interview, but this one is very special, cause it was for my dear friend Jenna Rose Robbins, whom I managed to sneak into a quick cameo in the film (well, we spent almost an entire day filming, but in the end you see her for some 6-10 seconds, blame the editing).
You can jump straight to her website and either read or watch our conversation. I didn’t even realize it went on for over 40 minutes (time flies when you’re having fun).
A curious fact: I cried watching the film in several opportunities, but it wasn’t until the 5th time in a theater (6th overall) that I got emotional with my own story. Before, I went from full tears running down my eyes to a lump in my throat with my fellow spirits whenever watching the filme. But the last time, however, was after I finally read what other Brazilian devotees thought of the film over the weekend and how much they stressed the connection with the song “Walking in my Shoes” and that short film in particular starring Australian-born, but also Berlin-based artist Mikey Woodbridge.
Despite liking the video, I wasn’t very taken aback when I saw my first couple of “Global Spirit Tour” shows in Leipzig and Dresden. I found it to be overall quite literal (including a pair of very high heels that are indeed a challenge to walk on). Later when talking to Jenna, we confirmed that when we both saw the video for the first time, we didn’t know it was set in Berlin, but then slowly started to realize it was filmed on the Hauptstadt by the way the apartment is decorated, the heating, the staircase of the building, the architecture on the streets of what was obviously Kreuzberg, the sign in German on the cafe where Mikey stops and, ultimately, the Bar Tausend under the S-Bahn (urban rail) bridge that connects the Friedrichstraße station that Mikey enters as the song ends. And we both realized it more or less at the same time (even if we didn’t attend these same concerts, we both attended the one in Berlin on June 22nd, 2017). So curious how we both thought alike. Also, now, like so many things Depeche, I had mixed feelings about the video when I first saw it, and now I’m absolutely in love with it. If “Walking in my Shoes” was a song I loved, now it’s a song I adore and want the chorus to be engraved on my tombstone.
PS.: French-German channel ARTE will show the film in Germany on Jan 24th, 2020 (the same date as the new release date of the “MODE” box set). You can see more details here (including the fact they’re showing “101” right before).
PS 2.: If you can’t wait that long, the film is available on Amazon Prime, Vimeo, Youtube, Google Play Store and iTunes. On most of these platforms it’s available on SD or HD, and for rent or purchase.
PS 3.: Did you know Jenna has a very interesting book about her crazy idea of following the band during part of their Devotional tour in 1993 called “Faithful and Devoted: Confessions of a Music Addict”? I highly recommend you do. Here’s some more info about it.
PS 4.: WordPress is on the verge of updating some stuff and my site may face some visual issues until I fix everything. If this happens, please bear with me while I work on it. Internet knows no holiday breaks.
Well, It’s been more than 24h since I saw the proper first theatrical screening of “Spirits in the Forest” to the general public here in the Depeche Mode capital of the world. Besides a small after-show party hangover which made me miss the entire morning, I had a very busy day reading and trying to answer as many messages as I can (if you have written me and I have not answered, calm down, I’m not finished yet).
Besides the short celebrity experience all the way from when the lights went on in the theater and being asked for selfies with half of the people in the after party, what I’m the most happy with is the reaction people had after watching the film. So I wasn’t the only one who cried watching it (yes, I cried again). For the record, the list of films that made me cry is very short. It’s mostly films about prejudice and extreme injustice: “The Color Purple”, “The Help”, “Bent”, “Dancer in the Dark” plus an odd man out that just so happens to be another of Anton’s oeuvre: “Control”.
Even though I was not the director, nor had almost any creative control over this film, all my fears were indeed sashayed away. It was not another “101”. Our stories were not boring to (most) other fans. On the contrary. I had people telling me this movie made them reconnect with the moment Depeche Mode got into their lives, even if it had nothing to do with what us six tell in the film. Yes, I also got messages from people relating specifically with what we went through, but it was really incredible to see this film even transcends what being a Depeche Mode fan is. You can show it to someone else and say: “this is why we like this band”, but I’ll make Liz words mine and state that this is film about the humanity in us all. Anyone can watch it and still get the message.
As an update from the last post, I also bring Liz’s interview for Home, IndieWire’s review, and German Rolling Stone’s somewhat weird review with some wrong assumptions because none of us were interviewed by them. UPDATE: Anton goes back to his roots in this NME interview.
And for the record: Berlin is the capital of the Depeche Mode world, BUT LOS ANGELES comes in a close second place. Where else in the world is there a Depeche Mode convention? This first part of my line was very popular here in Berlin, where 11 out of 10 people are fans, but the second part was left in the cutting room floor and I just don’t want to piss off fans from LA. Specially after getting to know Liz and also all these great guys in the picture above that I got to spend some unforgettable days with.
Today marks the 6th anniversary of my permanent arrival in Berlin. I had visited the city four times in the previous two years. There was almost this voice in my head: “if you build Berlin’s new airport, AirBerlin will come to Rio with a non-stop flight to pick you up”.
To no one’s disappoint, Berlin’s unfinished airport’s current opening date should be fall 2020. The original plan was to open it some time in 2010, but then the delays started. In one of my trips, I even got to get a flight ticket with BER written on it as my destination. About one month before the trip, Lufthansa emailed me saying the destination would be at good old Tegel airport instead. The airport has had so many unfulfilled openings, that no one takes whichever is the current one seriously (me neither). Along with the eternal delays with the airport, AirBerlin ended up filing for bankruptcy because they were counting on the new airport . They even did actually have plans for a Berlin-Rio non-stop flight. But it never materialized and it’s all history now. A buried past for AirBerlin and a mysterious future for Willy Brandt Airport, Berlin-Brandenburg (in case you were curious to know the full name of what Berliners simply call B-E-R).
Enough with Berlin trivia. If you want to get to know tons of information about the city that not even Wikipedia will tell you, I strongly recommend Notmsparker’s books.
There are many first-world-problems to whine about Berlin. “Berlin is not Germany”, some will say. They’re not that wrong. But to me, it’s almost like a Dorf (a small village) with the infrastructure of an European capital. Yes, there are stereotypical yoga-vegan-punk Berliners. But part of the German way of life is present, nonetheless. People say good morning, hello, thank you. The “bitte” culture is nice. I sometimes say it two or three times in one sentence just to be sure. But, hey, Germans, it’s not that us, foreigners, are rude for not saying the almighty “bitte” once in a while. Its just that sometimes it’s already understood in our mother tongue’s spoken language. The intonation implies everything. And sometimes one language interferes with the other and the bitte gets lost in translation. But when in Rome… I mean, Berlin…
Also, traffic is not an eternal gridlock. I laugh at the face of Berliners that complain about traffic. The maximum speed limit is 50km/h (I think there is one avenue that has an old limit of 60km/h, a relic from East Germany times). I had to cleanse myself of all the rage I had built upon the vicious circle of hate that is the traffic of Rio. People drive badly, so you drive even worse, which will lead someone else to drive badly… you get the point, right? Leave all that behind and simply drive calmly and with attention, specially with bicycles. And what’s not to love in a flat city much more welcoming to bikes? They’re not perfect, but don’t get me started on Rio’s bike situation.
There are some trade-offs, of course. The consumerist mentality is quite different. Apart from a handful of times per year, normal shops are not allowed to open on Sundays. Movie theaters have almost half an hour of advertising before the film starts. And, despite the magical convenience of simply hopping into a train or subway without barriers on the platforms, Murphy’s law says you will be controlled exactly on that day you forgot your monthly ticket expired the day before. And obviously, the one thing from Rio de Janeiro that Berlin can’t top: all seasons are more or less the same. In Berlin, it’s like living in 4 different planets every 3 months. But I will always have room for both cities in my heart. Rio, ich liebe dich, mas Berlin é a minha amante. pobre, mas sexy*
*(Rio, I love you, but Berlin is my poor, but sexy mistress)
I found the original picture that I chose as my profile picture for the takeover. This was moments before the Delta Machine Tour show in the summer of 2013.
I wasn’t living in Berlin yet. That was 2 months later. I had travelled to Europe to compensate for all the tours I’d missed. I planned to see the boys in Munich, Frankfurt, Berlin and Paris, where I’d watch the show from the front of stage area.
Back to the story of the picture. I was walking from the subway station to the stadium and, as I passed by the parking lot in front of the stadium, I asked a stranger that was also walking behind me to take a picture. Glad a few filters made it look much better for my instagram which you can see here (yes, I had to scroll down my instagram feed until 2013 to find it). Probably today I would have tweaked it in a better way. But, as they say, “lights on, switch on”.