Depeche Mode in Santa Barbara, Oct 02 or "Home"

When we woke up the next morning, we first saw our surrounding. Wonderful, the mountain view.
I ran for a while though the desert ( together with huge rabbits)  and then I climbed into the pool, which was fed with mountain water. Yes, it was really cold.
After a vegan breakfast we were back on the road to Santa Barbara.
We drank a beer in Kern City, a small village into the mountains. Look typical american, a little bit like in the movie "Rambo".
The taste of the incidents in Las Vegas was still very bitter on our tongue. My goodness, the weapons laws have to be changed here urgently.
Now the landscape was changing, we arrived at the Pacific Ocean.
I love mountains, but to be at the ocean is a different feeling.
Santa Barbara, hometown of Mr. Martin Lee Gore is a very friendly small city. But very rich, totally different to all the other cities or villages we saw.
We arrived just an hour before the concert started so we hurried up and were only a few minutes at the Santa Barbara Bowl before Depeche Mode went on stage.
The Santa Barbara Bowl is a very small amphitheater (4500 people) nestling in a mountain slope.
We had good places and after a short while most of the people stood up. Was an easy evening for Mr. Gahan in this small place under a wonderful star sky with a bright shining moon. Relaxed and friendly mood.
His main difficulty was not to fall off the stage, because of the little locality, there was no catwalk. Sometimes he made a step in the direction of the imaginary catwalk but he changed his mind shortly before he could fell into the crowd..... ( reminds you of the times when he jumped into the audience with full intent in the 90ies...).
A great concert. After the concert we went to an after show party, enjoyed one beer and went back to our hotels, because we were so tired after these two days of traveling.
#depeche Mode #globalspirittour #devotee #santabarbara



                                                                   Olancha

Isabella Lake

Kern City

Santa Barbara

Exiter Town

Home of Mr. Martin L. Gore

Depeche Mode on Globalspirittour or alive

After the great Vegas Concert we left the city next morning in the direction of the Death Valley.

First we bought enough to drink and many delicious stuff in one of the big supermarkets here. You could spend an entire day in these huge stores.
We are a group of 6 people here in America. Two pairs and me and my friend Fabian from Berlin.
We stay the most of the time in different hotels, because we have different requirements at the hotels. I need a big swimming pool, because I love to swim every morning. The most  hotels have pools but I need a bigger pool for swimming not a small one for splashing.
So we left Vegas as a group of four people to discover the Death Valley, we will meet our other two friends in Santa Barbara in two days again.
We started the tour through the Death Valley at the small town called Beatty.
Beatty is home to the ghost town of Rhyolite and the Goldwell Open Air Museum (a sculpture park).
It's a strange city, a little bit like the end of the World, but you have to visit the Goldwell Open Air Museum. Strange sculptures, strange mood there in the air.
Beatty is the test track for the " Erlkönige", new vehicles will be tested there under extremely conditions in the Desert of the Death Valley.
It felt like the border to a parallel world. We were afraid to cross an invisible threshold and be drawn into the parallel world. A bit like in the movie "Poltergeist".
Then we cross the boarder to California and entered the Death Valley.
Look at my pictures because words are not enough to describe what we saw.. The mountains don't look like mountains, they look more like creatures. Alive and dangerous. You feel as if you were in a filming location for a science fiction film. This is the best option, the other option you can imagine is, you are now in the parallel world, maybe on Mars......
Warnings are everywhere "Heat kills" and that's true. It's so hot there.
We visited the typical tourist points like Zabriskie Point and tried to reach the "Red Cathedral". It was just to hot for a 30 minute walk. And Badwater Basin, the deepest point of the Valley is 85.95 meters below sea level.
In the late afternoon we drove about the hills, foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Unbelievable curvy endless streets. Finally we reached Olancha, a small place with a few hotels. We couldn't see our surrounding, because we arrive in the darkness.
We were all in bed early. But before I went to bed I checked my E-Mails and social platforms and I read about the shoot-out on a Country Festival in Las Vegas, where more than 50 people died. My family and many friends wanted to know if everything is ok. Yes, we are alive, we left Vegas before the shoot-out, but we were shocked. Unbelievable cruel.
My condolences for all concerned.

The Goldwell Open Air Museum

Entrance of the Death Valley

We couldn't reach the Red Cathedral

Depeche Mode in Las Vegas, September 30 or Schulzi flying higher

After a better and longer night than the first night I swam 30 minutes.
I love swimming and I feeling so happy to have a pool only two stairs away....
Then I met my friends and we start with a walk through the hotels the strip up and down, made funny pictures and start at noon with drinking, because it's concert day. It's our kind of warm-up for the show. You can by cocktails in a kind of flower vases everywhere on the strip, looks so funny all the people with different coloured big vases in their hands strolling up and down the strip.

                                          View from the Bellagio with the famous Fountains

We met Miss Kitty

Some Show chicks

Margerita Girls

"Chewie"

Then we drove to the Stratosphere Tower where I decided to seek a new challenge to test my fear for heights. I booked a ticket for the tower included two rides. The stratosphere has the 3 rides, The Big shot, Insane  ( a swing carousel outside of the tower) and x-sream. We started with the x-scream. A massive teeter-totter or a Vegas rollercoaster unlike any other ever seen. X-Scream propels you and several other riders headfirst, 27 feet over the edge of the Stratosphere Casino, Hotel & Tower. It was so cruel for me, I screamed so loud, oh my god.
With the Big Shot, you can be cascaded up to 40 meters at the top of the tower, then you can go back to the starting point high above the rooftops of Las Vegas. At Big Shot, 4g affect the driver, at the top you are weightless for a short time. I did this 2005, too but I forgot how strange it was. An experience on the border of what I could endure.
I don't have the pictures of this adventure in the moment, they are so funny, I will post them in a few days.

As reward we drank two cocktails each in the rooftop bar and later we had a quick but good meal in a very typical diner.

Scared before the rides..

Great cocktail: "the angry cucumber"

Mushroom burger

Than we had to hurry up for our first Depeche Mode concert in North America on this tour.
We would almost have arrived too late, and I was already nearing a hysterical attack. My friends quit this with a short laugh, they already know it already ....
We reached the T-Mobile Arena just 20 minutes for beginning. Just time enough to catch our drinks and to took our places. Yes, no standing area, all seats. But as Depeche Mode went on stage everybody stood up directly. We stand in front of our seats, it was very closely, and I always kicked at the chair behind me, so I now have many blue spots on my legs.
The crowd was a very good one. Whenever a piece started, it took a moment that the audience recognized it and then went a delightful whisper through the crowd.
It remembers me on concerts in Europe in the 80ies. The setlist was the same like every concerts. No changes to the European set. But I was so happy to see the guys again. Thank God, because I was a litlle bit nervous because I need such a long time to come into my routine with the concerts at the beginning of the tour. But it worked for me from the first song. I sang and danced the whole time with my friends and the great audience. Dave liked the mood, he was very relaxed and sang very well.
It was a bit unfortunate that there weren't the smaller screenings besides the stage, so Depeche Mode were far away and most of the time you couldn't see their facial expressions.
I was especially happy about the smaller things like the snipper of " Grandmaster Flash" at the end of " Barrel of the gun".

"Don't push me, ’cause I'm close to the edge

I'm trying not to lose my head

It's like a jungle sometimes

It makes me wonder how I keep from going under"

So great, so well sung, amazing. an absolut highlight for me.

" Cover me"! The audience liked it as much as the Europeans. It's an quiet song but still the mood is so exciting. Dave is God.

Then came Martin's two songs and the fans here in North America like it so much when he is singing, but unfortunately many people went out for buying drinks, so the mood turned always a little bit restless.

As Dave came back the concert turned into a quick trip to the highlights..." Everything counts, Wrong, Enjoy the silence and never let me down." It was another thrilling ride for me where I flying higher.....I felt more weightless as on the top of the Stratosphere.

I was back in the magic of Mister Gahan. He has thrown out his spiderweb again.

I was not the only one in his spiderweb, we all was under his influence, the audience was really really amazing in Vegas.

The encore was good like every time. " Heroes" is so grown for me, what a wonderful interpretation. Dave sang it out of his heart, so touching, ouch. The concert ended with the powerful " Personal Jesus". Once again the soundtrack of my life: " Reach out and touch Dave".

We finished the evening with a drink in a near by Casino "Monte Carlo" where we met friends from Florida. Wonderful evening and I came late but happy back to my Hotel in the Middle of the Strip.

Now I'm there where I wanted to be from the beginning of the tour: in the hand of Mr. Gahan such as warm plasticine in a child's hand.

A group of friends. This Picture is taken by Mike.

Now Good Night. Tomorrow morning you will hear more about the last hours in Las Vegas and our trip through the Death Valley and the concert in Santa Barbara.