Depeche Mode (with Stabbing Westward) - Cal Expo, Sacramento, California - May 12, 1994

Six months in between shows, and we wound up going to see Depeche Mode again, this time at Cal Expo, the preferred Sacramento outside venue.

I thought it was odd that Depeche was touring again so soon. What is more odd though, is that they were supporting a new album, Songs of Faith and Devotion Live. My friends and I were kind of mixed on whether or not we liked the first SOFAD. CF liked it right away. PCH I don’t think ever liked it. I didn’t like it much at first, but it kind of grew on me after a while. Whether or not you liked the original though, I think you would have to agree that the live version less than a year later was a blatant money-making scheme. There was nothing really new on the album at all, not like their earlier live double cd, 101. It was simply all the songs from SOFAD, in the same order, played live. I thought it was so lame that I almost didn’t want to go and see the supporting tour. Yeah, right.

The song I remember most about this show was an amazing live version of “I want you now,” from Music for the Masses. It wasn’t ever really that popular a song, but they did a really great live version of it (I think they did it at the November show as well, but I seem to remember it here for some reason.

Stabbing Westward opened, and I remember them kind of sucking, looking like heroin junkies for the most part (not unlike Dave Gahan, who must have weighed 100 pounds soaking wet at this time). Later I remember them being heralded as one of the coolest bands at the time. I guess I must have missed something.

I was just looking at the depeche mode site again, and while the discography is mostly offline (!) – they do have some neat features, like all of their lyrics and a listing of all their past tours. I guess this was the “Exotic” tour. Who knew?