a tale of two shows (and two cities, but that title would get me sued)

it’s amazing the difference between the arena shit and the club shit…

…seriously.

for this we’ll look at two 80’s alt-rock legends, both on tour, both did well in both the 80’s and 90’s. peter hook, former bass player and founding member of joy division and new order, and depeche mode.

hook –

tix – $25
park – free
shirt – $15, $20 if you wanted one signed by him (nice touch!)
set – three hours
joint – the belmont
capacity – 2,500 i’d guess

depeche –

tix – $55 on the grass, $125 reserved, up to $500 for “VIP”
park – free
shirt – $45 (fucking seriously?)
set – two hours
joint – woodlands pavilion
capacity – 16,500

i enjoyed both shows. a lot. and as i’ve seen every depeche tour for the last twenty-five years and i have to miss their austin appearances at acl for the dual reasons of i work weekends and fucking HATE acl this was a good compromise. plus, apparently everybody i know into them enough to go pre-acl is going to dallas tomorrow night so i beat the crowd and caught ’em first. the hook show was awesome, and more so when i discovered ice water was free and the bass player playing most of his signature riffs was his own son (keep in mind he didn’t sing in either previous band so i think that made him have to drag a bass player on tour) and it was two great nights of music for me. after working shows for quite a while, and going to them even longer, it’s nice to get back out to a couple, even if now there will be a break for a bit.

i have a list of songs i’ve always wanted to hear depeche play live and never have, and they killed one off that list the other night. that alone made the trip for me.

sure, i got let down in other ways, and houston traffic kinda blows, but combine that with the peter hook thing and this has been an awesome, all be it expensive, week. now if the weekend will score me enough cash to stop sweating the coastal trip next weekend all will be well…