Depeche Mode | Black Celebration Tour, Friedrich-Ebert-Halle Ludwigshafen

To this day, I was certain that the reason to see this particular show in Ludwigshafen was because the show in Frankfurt was on a Sunday and I had made the decision early in life not to visit concerts on Sundays. Far from it, according to the internet, there was no show in Frankfurt as part of the ‘Black Celebration’ in the first place tour and that must then have been the reason why we went to Ludwigshafen.

Anyway, with ‘Black Celebration’ Depeche Mode had a new album out and by then we were big fans and hence Ludwigshafen was apparently not too far away to see the band live.

You might gather from the way I’m wording this that I am not writing this blog post from memory. The fact is, that I remember almost nothing, just that we made a trip to Ludwigshafen to see Depeche Mode and I also remember the names of one or two friends who were with us that day. BUT there is proof, I still have my ticket to the show, the earliest concert ticket that is still in my possession.

This was the evening’s setlist, again not from memory but thanks to those that diligently maintain setlists on great web pages like setlist.fm or dmlive.wiki: Christmas Island (Intro), Black Celebration, A Question of Time, Fly on the Windscreen, Shake the Disease, Leave in Silence, It’s Called a Heart, Everything Counts, It Doesn’t Matter Two, A Question of Lust, Blasphemous Rumours, New Dress, Stripped, Something to Do, Master and Servant, Photographic, People Are People, Encore: Boys Say Go!, Encore 2: Just Can’t Get Enough, More Than a Party.

Again thanks to the web it is not that hard to find a live recording of that evenings show and listening to the recording I can’t help it but to think what a treat it must have been for me as a DM fan to hear Black Celebration, A Question of Time, Fly on the Windscreen, It Doesn’t Matter Two, A Question of Lust, New Dress and Stripped being played live for the first time.

And then there is this block of three songs on the setlist which for me are very typical early Depeche Mode songs: Shake the Disease, Leave in Silence, It’s Called a Heart. Hearing them again one day as part of a live set in their album / single versions would be awesome.

In retrospect I think with ‘Black Celebration’ Depeche Mode had evolved signifcantly and for me, this album was the first of the four most important DM albums.

If you have any thoughts on life in the so-called space age, on this post or also visited the show in Ludwigshafen 1986 or have seen the ‘Black Celebration’ tour somewhere else I would love to hear from you. Leave a comment and I’ll make an effort to respond.

Links:
Depeche Mode
The evenings setlist on setlist.fm
Friedrich-Ebert-Halle
Karsten Jahnke Konzertdirektion

Post last updated on 02. September 2020