Depeche Mode in Prague

My first encounter with the music of Depeche Mode goes back to the 80´s. At this time I could have been around ten years old and their music wouldn´t be much on my playlist. I remember my four year older sister and her generation already listened to them though. Much later, when I was 15 or so, I recall one song that particularly stuck in my mind. Condemnation. I really loved that song. Of course like everybody, I have come to know some of the most famous Depeche Mode songs, those, that have been played on the radio or MTV.

It´s been one of my most favorite bands of my sister. She used to talk of Dave Gahan and they were to her the equivalent of what was Queen to me. That´s why it was my pleasure to accept her Christmas present in form of the ticket to their Prague concert. It was to take place on 24^th May in Eden Arena, in the open space stadium that can take in as many as 20.000 people, and which, according to the daily press, was filled completely. When I arrived in front of the stadium, there were hundreds of black clad people, some of them undoubtedly the hardcore fans, judging by sleek haircuts, bright colored lipsticks and generally mystique, dark appearance. There were also lot of police vans and security personnel due to the Manchester attack few days before. The tension lingered in the air, but the good and positive vibe prevailed nonetheless.  When we got inside, there were already hundreds of people formatting the close knit pack in the centre of the arena, enveloping  the main stage. One hilarious scene before the concert even started was a moment when five security guys grabbed one of the gig attendees each by edge of his clothing and carried him out of the arena, drunk beyond his wildest imagination. I guess he was overexcited to attend his favorite band a little more than necessary.  It looked like they carried a heavy log from the forest, as he was half unconscious and his lifeless body didn´t even protest. After some unknown forerunner who nobody listened to as usual, the big ones came. They kicked off with GOING BACKWARDS. All the hands in front of us rose up in unison and you could barely see Dave through this thick forest. SO MUCH LOVE, BARREL OF GUN, A PAIN THAT I´M USED TO, CORRUPT, IN YOUR ROOM, WORLD IN MY EYES, COVER ME…all these followed with the giant screen in the backdrop playing accompanying videos. To be utterly honest, I didn´t know any of these songs, as I´m not the hardcore fan. But I definitely knew QUESTION OF LUST sang by Martin Gore. Next one I recognized was WALKING IN MY SHOES and EVERYTHING COUNTS. When ENJOY THE SILENCE begun, the whole stadium broke out in one big frantic sheer. Obviously one of the most legendary tunes of Depeche Mode. We all sang at top of our lungs. Dave Gahan was wonderful, turning twists like a ballet dancer and enjoying the rush we gave him, being cocky and all that, but you definitely couldn´t take your eyes off him. There were so many people who sang in one voice, so much energy that one stadium could possibly contain. It was amazing feeling that would overwhelm even the toughest ones. Dave, again dripping wet and half naked, sang NEVER LET ME DOWN AGAIN, with all of us waving our hands in the air, and no matter how squeezed we were, we all waved and waved, Dave giving us a devastatingly cute showcase of how to follow him. The sea of hands moved in the same rhythm and speed and there was no way to escape this. Once you joined the sea, you turned into one of the waves and became inseparable. I recall Freddie Mercury who used to say that it feels like he´s created a monster that reacts to every single move of his finger. I wondered how does it have to feel for Gahan and these big stars, when they win over the stadium full of 20 thousand souls, willing to die for them. I imagied it must be monstrously amazing feeling, a feeling that nobody who hasn´t experienced it, will never comprehend. Then it was turn for Martin, who sang a beautiful ballad of his own, SOMEBODY. The whole stadium darkened and you could only see the lit up lights all across the stadium, which looked like little stars in the ocean of darkness. This was a moment of utter peace on earth, at least for a moment, the feeling quite indescribable and rare. Next song was HEROES, by David Bowie, which was understandably very touching moment. The big black flag was being projected onto the screen behind Dave, who gave it all, when dedicating it to his musical hero. Next song was I FEEL YOU and the last, PERSONAL JESUS, a song that once again contributed to mass madness and brought us to a boil.
 I have been to several concerts in my life, but this one must have been the most emotionally charged, passionate and inspirational one. They got under my skin after all. Unfortunately, the show had to end precisely at 10pm due to the rules, so we didn´t get any bonus songs, but with a show full of so much energy, it was alright, as the scope of what we have just witnessed stayed and lingered in all of us, long after we left the stadium. Some of the fans were unhappy to see it end so abruptly, so they kept singing their songs while climbing up the stairs and it evoked so much interest that some people even started recording them. One more legend I can put down on my list and say to myself, hell yeah, I went to see the legendary Depeche Mode, the guys whose songs we have listened to when we were fifteen. They are still around, as much as their songs. They are immortal and always will be. 

Queen in Prague

Queen in Prague at last. How many years has it been since I saw Roger and Brian? It makes me wonder, for it has been 21 years since I saw Roger walking down the pathwalk when collecting his award and 17 years since I shook hands with Brian. It has been an unbelievable passage of time during which so many things have happened – meeting Barbara, Phoebe, Jim and Kashmira – but only last night completed the circle when Queen performed in front of my eyes, twenty years later, united and although prevalently old and grey, still giving it their best. I used to be a great fan of Adam Lambert when he sang on American Idol several years ago. I watched the show just because of him and I admired the way he could mesmerize the audience with his high pitched, shrieking and rock voice that could break the glass in the windows. At that time, when he chose a duet with Queen, I suddenly knew he should have sung with the band, for he gave such a brilliant performance. It didn´t take long before I saw Queen announce the next tour would include Adam. For as a matter of fact, I´m good at predicting these things.

The opening of the gig started off little bit on a heavy side, with One Vision where the drums and voice and guitars were overwhelmingly loud. Two songs in, the music seemed to relax a bit more.
I knew what to expect from Adam, for I have seen him many times. He is young, shocking, unique and quite theatrical, so singing Killer Queen on a purple sofa wasn´t a big deal for him, while acting like one. Voice wise, he did sing great, though a little higher than what we are used to from Freddie, but then again, we are used to loads of different things from Freddie.
It was then, that my heart started pounding a lot faster, when Brian took to his stool in the centre of the protruding stage, grabbed a guitar and sang us one of the ballads. He took time to thank us all for being there, and also added we could sing this song together for Freddie. The big screen behind him showed him in several videos. There were moments when I just barely breathed, this one probably one of them. At the end of the song, Brian looked extremely touched by all the emotion that swept through the air, and wiped his tears.

It was also a huge surprise to see Roger Taylor singing two songs, one of which was Freddie´s „swan song“ These are the Days. I have always heard him as a backing voice, and although I knew he could sing, I barely ever heard him singing any of the songs to which Freddie gave a stamp. The old greying, bearded man, stood there, singing amazingly clearly and beautifully. For the first time I realized – how many great talents individual members of Queen actually had. They did sometimes stay in the shadow of the giant, to be fair. Saying that, I suddenly noticed the change in the structure of the show, so much different from what Freddie would have done. Of course they didn´t forget to have a separate 15 minute one man show – with Brian throwing in his guitar solo – and Roger drumming side by side with his son Rufus Tiger. Roger and Brian just needed this space, which they couldn´t generally use as much while performing with Freddie, where all his ideas of singing usually beat the rest. No doubt Freddie and his voice were the most important to the overall image of Queen – carrying the tune in every song – with instruments only underlining the Queen uniqueness. However, seeing Roger killing the drums like a God of revenge, it was quite an exciting sight to be presented with.
The band used many amazing technical effects, different coloured laser beams, light torches, smoke machines, firework style gold sparkling guns and colossal screens with very ambitious art designs accompanying each live sequence. There was also this enormous construction styled into a ship, with nose and stern on each side of the stage, from which Adam sang and tried to pump up the public.
The amazing effect gadget was a huge red circle hanging above the stage, which kept lifting up and down several times during the concert and from which shone thousands of red and green laser beams that pointed in hundreds of directions throughout the whole arena. For a while it looked almost like in a dark fosforescent jungle, with the beams resembling the sunlight breaking through the heavy darkness, giving it a magical feel.
The other member of the band was also Neil Fairclough, a friend of Suzanne and Andy, two of my good friends, who joined the band after Brian heard him playing his bass guitar so well. John Deacon has never participated on anything that Brian and Roger produced or tried to bring forth, and nobody has ever heard about him since. It is a pity...eventhough...one can quite understand his choice. Without Freddie there can´t be any Queen. It is quite true. But one question is –if Freddie is replaceable – and another question is, what would Freddie want? I´m sure he would definitely want them to go on and keep their music alive in every sense. I think he knew he could trust each one of them, and be sure they would never abuse their status in the band for the sole purpose of money gain. He knew he surrounded himself with peers who loved their music as much as he did and that all they´ll ever do will be done in regard to the fans. It is quite difficult matter to decide if Queen should have ceased doing what they are doing just because the King has left the throne. Sure, they never fully replaced him by another one, due to impossibility of the task itself. They only borrowed a new singer to fill up the gap, to show that Queen hasn´t died just yet, to spice it up, make it approachable to the young audience and prove it doesn´t have to end. The show must go on, as a genius once said.

That brings me back to the moment when Bohemian Rhapsody burst through the loud speakers and Adam´s face kept switching back to the big screen where Freddie sang away as if nothing has really changed. He sat behind his piano, next to the stage with real life Brian and Roger – and despite of the fact he was the one who didn´t exist in our reality – it was him– having the most powerful presence of all, allowing us to enter into his innermost world. The atmosphere at moments like these grew heavy and sad, as it reminded me (and I dare to say – to all of us) that this particular wound of missing Freddie, will never be healed, no matter how many years have passed, no matter how many people will try to bring back the good old times, no matter how many new faces will stand on the stage next to Roger and Brian. Some people simply remain irrepleacable after all, but it´s a good thing. It would be lot sadder if they were so easily substituted.
The eyes of thousands watched his every move as if for the last time....then, he disappeared into the darkness to the sound of thunderous applause. The applause he must have heard in heaven, I´m sure.

17.2.2015

Queen - the opening scene 

Adam Lambert finally coming out

Rogert Taylor drumming

Brain May

singing "Love of my life" that brought us to tears and him too

the whole ensamble

Rufus Tiger with his Dad

Roger singing marvelously These are the Days of Our lives

Freddie couldn´t miss this....

drum battlefield...

The applause of 15 000 people....

When Lenny hit the Town

On the 19th of December he finally arrived! His previously cancelled gig that was sabotaged by his illness and postponed until today, was replaced in equivalent style. It only made us more excited. 

Me and Eva went to grab some bite into the pub across the road from the Arena and then we have waited for Aneta in a drizzling rain. There weren´t as many people by the main entrance gates, which allowed us to get in quite easily. After being scanned over like a bunch of terrorists, we got through as discreetly as possible. As we had places booked for standing in front of the stage, we merrily run toward the front, which was the second best position closest to the stage without it being the most expensive. But boy, the waiting! We have sat there from 6.30 till 8pm, when the Arena was already filled with people, and the forerunners (whose name nobody remembers) started to play. It was so obnoxious to wait for so long and still see no sign of Lenny, that many people got upset during the band´s performance and tried to shout them out. The singer wasn´t bad, their music was quite alright, but the nervousnesss was prevaling at this point. People were unhappy and started calling Lenny´s name, so the singer got little upset and shouted back :“I love you too“. 

It had been a heartbreaking and tiring hour and a half of waiting in the united tension. While we had listened to Freddie´s Rock it (Prime Jive), which made me all the more jittery, and The Who, two of my most favorite bits of all time, the huge stage curtain kept only blowing in the wind without any signs of other movement. The only person who has ever walked out was a tuner guy with Santa´s hat on. 

And then, finally, the lights turned off, and the band walked out and….well, Lenny still kept hiding in the shadows – and then suddenly appeared in the middle of the stage like this God (which of course he was). I had had a feeling that his first song will be the one I love the most – „Dirty white boots“. There is a story tied to this one, as whenever I had sang it, I thought he sings Dirty white boobs, which didn´t make much sense, but it made me laugh when I realized he sings about boots instead. And guess what, he started off just with that. It was quite spectacular to see him in flesh. I remember having watched him on MTV when I was a kid some 20 years ago or more, when he still fashioned his long dreadlocks, and seeing him after such a long time twenty metres right in front of my eyes, still looking preposterously young and cool, I could not help but to swoon with pleasure. He was so ridiculously sexy in his clothes and with his unique, frivolous body language.  If you could put confidence in one word, concentrated into a person, it would have to be him.  I loved the way he jerked his head from time to time, it was a body language of black singers, the moves of the real soul musicians, the ones who have music in their veins instead of blood. It was tantalizing to watch him, not mentioning the way ha sang. He thanked us all for coming, and shouted out "Thank you Praha" several times- which always brought on a huge aplaus. Another songs he entertained were American woman,  It ain´t over till it´s over, Strut, Dancing till down, Sister, Let love rule (at which he made us all sing along), Fly away, The Chamber, or Are you gonna go my way. All of them were fabulous and brought us all to the boiling point. At least the front rows were all heated up. It took a while for him to lift the people up from their seats and make  them join in singing Let love rule. Czechs are just glued to their places and it´s not the first time I´ve encoutered this, they  act as if being scared to show any sing of pleasure or excitement. But I sang and screamed and danced, as if nothing of this mattered. The good one was "I belong to you", where even the shyest person got up, sang and waved their hands. After he walked away from the stage having been received with enormous aplaus, we were calling him out for another ten minutes in complete darkness, desparately shouting his name and whistling. It already seemed he won´t re-appear. But he did, and he took an ace out of his sleeve! Santana himself came on the stage and played a solo. It was a big shock, as nobody had expected surprise of such kind. Well, I guess Lenny just wanted to tease us a little! One thing is for sure, I´ll never forget this gig, it was utterly mind shattering experience, for me almost the same as if I had seen Jim Hendrix, eventhough it wouldn´t be right to make such comparisons. But tell me honestly, is there anyone on the musical scene these days, who´d make such good music and still rock in his 50´s that would come as close to Hendrix as Lenny has? I doubt it. And when he smiled, it was as if the heaven opened.....Hallelujah :)

Rufus Wainwright in Hybernia

It has all started by me listening to George Michael´s singing "Going to town" in his concert. He named Rufus Wainwright as the author. I didn´t know anything about that guy and for some weird reason I have imagined him to be some old, scruffy musical degenarate, someone like aged Johny Cash.
I was shocked to find out he was exactly the opposite. Young, fresh, gay and loud. Boyishly handsome. Canadian. I have listened to some songs on youtube and became instantly addicted to his piano playing, head jerking and voice manouvering. It all felt like some long forgotten feeling that felt good, only you haven´t known you could have ever feel like this.
So there he was, coming on 25th March 2014 to Prague with his step sister Lucy Wainwright Roche. She was funny, hillarious on stage, and some of her songs were quite moving. But when Rufus entered the stage and sat behind the black piano, the air suddenly shifted and the energy changed. It was like watching some wild chimera, the very organic and raw, that keeps stunning over and over again. His voice sounded perfect, the timing and the lightness of it all only reverberating through the hall like the invisible cloud over our heads. I could see his face, always smiling, with nonchalant smirk and his eyes sparkling as he moved his fingers on the keyboard. The first song to open with was Grey gardens, my most favourite one. He popped his head from left to right as if he had it softly sown to his neck, without ever looking ridiculous. That was his trademark movement, and it worked. People were already accustomed to his fancy behaviour, so often called camp. I can´t describe the sound of his voice. It was like listening to the sweetest, most vibrant, and emotional tune I have heard. He kept amusing his audience by his comments about wearing not so cool jeans (ripped up on his tights), making remarks about his balls hanging out from the trousers he put on earlier on in a last attempt to look professional. The whole performance was amazing and full of surprises, for example when Lucy changed into Liza Minelli or one of the crew members came running onto stage looking like Rocky Balboa. Rufus played so many well known songs, I reckon all of which were from his latest album Vibrate. When he was about to finish, we weren´t having enough and wanted more. We gave him standing ovations and he threw about five more songs to make us happy. I waved at him and at one point I believe he waved back in my direction, as I was the only one who dared to. And of course, I yelled and screamed when I liked the song, which I did, most of the time. It was the most amazing concert I have ever been to. I love Rufus Wainwright, but to be able to recapture those special moments, I have to transcend into quite different world each time....because that´s what he does to you, when you listen to him. This is not your regular shallow music. This is a soul food that will keep you alive for as long as you breathe.