and then there were two for 2023

i wondered if this would happen…

(and i was really hoping it would!)

depeche mode will carry on as a duo with a new album and tour. the san antonio date is one of the first five, and the ONLY TEXAS DATE which makes me nervous as fuck about getting a ticket. i say “a” because the ufc is of the opinion that she’s seen them once, and that was enough (in her defense i’ve seen them three times just in the time we’ve been together, and she finally lamented and went to the last one).

for me it’s a bit different – i saw them in 1988 at the erwin center for the masses tour, the starplex in 1990 for the violation tour, the first leg of f&d in 1993 at erwin again, and the second at hemisfair arena in san antonio in 1994. then we did the alamodome in 1998 for the singles tour, verizon wireless (whatever happened to that place?) for exciter in 2001, the SBC center in SA for touring the angel in 2005, then it was down to the woodlands for the first time in 2009 for the tour of the the universe, and again in 2013 for the delta machine tour.

(quick note – i almost did the woodlands over the starplex in 1990 but it lost the coin toss…had i realized how much closer it was it woulda been a no brainer, and on the 2013 tour they did two austin dates at ACL but i work weekends, so…)

then i finally got to see em again in austin in 2017 at COTA for the first leg of the global spirit tour, catching the short, second us leg in the middle of the ME portion down in SA at the AT&T center (formally the SBC center) with the UFC. i call it the “ME portion of the tour” because she and i always talked about seeing em together but never did, and on that second leg they played three cities, in a row, that ME live in, in the order she lived in em – sacramento, san antonio, and tulsa. so that was how many shows i’ve seen of theirs? ten? hope i can score a ticket for the eleventh!