yasipedia #4: tripping at the Taylor Swift concert, Depechay Mode, and more
We’re back babe and I am tired so we’ll keep this brief. Why I am tired? Because in addition to spending 12 hours a day for weeks in the podcast mines, in a bout of female rage I purchased a ticket to the Eras tour in Las Vegas NEVADA to go see one miss Taylor with my fellow swiftie Niki Takesh, co-host of the excellent Forbidden Fruits podcast with Julia Fox and all around dream road trip concert roll dog. We spent five hours on the road listening to almost every Taylor album to pre-game before we carefully applied our colored eyeshadow (pink for Niki, blue for me) and headed to Allegiant Stadium to take in the motherfucking sights. There’s really nothing quite like being in a stadium full of project managers dressed to the nines in party store sequins and prom dresses after you’ve taken a respectable portion of mushroom gummies to really make you feel fucking alive. I won’t apologize for crying during the Fearless portion of the show and then maybe again during the Folklore part. I am a complicated woman with a ragged emotional landscape and living out 25 years of relationship trauma one perfectly penned pop song at a time was just what the doctor ordered.
This bitch performed for three full hours (I think, we left after “Anti-hero” bc I don’t fuck with Midnights like that and we needed to beat in the crowd in order to get to Mandalay Bay where the cover band in the rawk-themed lounge was playing “My Own Worst Enemy” by Lit and I was lucky enough to dance with a 90 year old man with a bag of guitar picks around his neck). I was hoarse and tired by hour two and I wasn’t even the one traversing the seven mile long stage in shiny Louboutins and Versace unitards. Right as I was at the tip of my psilocybin journey, she did unfortunately appear in a floor length red sequined Liberace-esque overcoat and I nearly didn’t make it but I am nothing if not a survivor. There was also a conga-line moment that almost broke me but when she pulled out the piano and tapped out “White Horse”? I was HEALED. Overall 10/10 recommend taking mushrooms at the Taylor Swift Eras tour.
What else?
-my fellow Persian princess Rahill put out a song with Beck and it’s giving summer days driving an hour to the beach and body surfing in the salty waves all day until you’re starving and you stop at the Islands in Redondo Beach for a burger and a basket of endless fries
-Mary HK Choi’s beautiful little podcast Hey, Cool Life! has been really helping me micro dose mental health
-new Lana fucking goes babe and as much as I wish I was a real “A&W” like the rest of you the truth is I am probably a “Peppers” girly anyway it’s an excellent time to be an adult woman with juvenile emotional issues !
and of course
BANDSPLAIN: DEPECHE MODE PART 1
Between the 100 page google doc…
seeing them perform at the Forum on Tuesday, which was gorgeous though I truly need to have a word with Anton Corbijn about some of his background visual choices (like for example the donkeys on the beach ??? and the mime with the huge tits and the mickey mouse gloves ????)
and I also need to know what brand of body glitter David Gahan is using because that shit really stayed PUT for all two hours of the show…
AND showing the Depeche Mode 101 doc at Braindead last night (thank you to everyone who came) I am a little Depeche Mover it but here is some extra sparkle on part 1, the Dave Gahan’s body glitter atop the episode if you will:
here is the other band Martin Gore was briefly in, French Look MK Ultra
here is Depechay Mode’s first appearance on TOTP doing “New Life” (real peach colored blouse hours)
here is their first NME cover shot by Anton Corbijn who clearly has hated them since day one like poor Dave is a Georges Seurat painting???
"I think the word 'pop' is really good, because it's light and happy. I think it's a nice word."
Vince Clarke in The Face in 1981 god bless his soul
this is maybe the most mental TOTP appearance in DM’s history - Gahan looks like a maitre’d, Martin looks like a shirtless carnie, Vince is giving Of Mice and Men, and they’re all holding prop trumpets that they pretend to play??? gorgeous 10/10 no notes
The joy of Depeche Mode is that there’s nothing in the way – no hidden thought or ulterior purpose, just an unobstructed route to the heart. -Melody Maker, 1981
Melody Maker said “no thoughts just vibes”
here’s the video where the director started filming Alan Wilder singing because he thought he was the lead singer (bc he’s so hot) and then just had to have them all sing in it to make it seem normal??
Anyway “Get The Balance Right” and multiple later Depeche Mode singles had a big impact on the burgeoning Detroit techno scene and later The Face arranged for Depeche Mode to go to Detroit and hang out with Derrick May and here’s a pic of that fake meeting (they look happy but they actually didn’t get along)
"Another big hit, and nothing short of driving a rusty meathook through David Gahan's malformed cranium will prevent it."
Sounds Magazine review of “Love, In Itself” off Construction Time Again
here’s Depeche Mode AFTER they went to Berlin and ditched the top hats and the pastels, performing “People Are People” on German TV
here’s a cutie-pants pic of Martin with Blixa Bargeld
one of these (grabbing) hands belongs to Hugh Grant
"What do you expect from this lame bunch of dickheads?"
Time Out Magazine review of the “Master and Servant” single (imagine being THIS audaciously wrong!!!!)
anyway here’s one of my favorite most unhinged DM videos where Clive Richardson was like hear me out what if this video has EVERYTHING: all the most up to date mid 80s special effects, found footage, hot girls, Dave Gahan in little leather sandals with white socks, literal construction time again, a big ass church, a plane landing, and more! and they were like absolutely let’s fucking do it
here’s my favorite live performance of my favorite Depeche Mode song
It was the summer of ’86. I’d dropped out of college and was living in Cleveland trying to find my way in the local music scene. I knew where I wanted to go with my life but I didn’t know how to get there. A group of friends and I drove down to Blossom Music Center amphitheater to see the Black Celebration tour. DM was one of our favorite bands and the Black Celebration record took my love for them to a new level.
I’ve thought about that night a lot over the years. It was a perfect summer night and I was in exactly the right place I was supposed to be. The music, the energy, the audience, the connection… it was spiritual and truly magic. I left that show grateful, humbled, energized, focused, and in awe of how powerful and transformative music can be… and I started writing what would eventually become Pretty Hate Machine.
Many times, particularly when we’re playing an amphitheater, I’ll think of that show while I’m onstage and hope someone in the audience is in the midst of a perfect summer night feeling how DM made me feel so many years ago.
Trent Reznor telling Tony Hawk (???) about his deep love for DM and specifically Black Celebration
ahead of Part 2 next week, here is your friend Tony Hawk skating to “Never Let Me Down”
Listen to Bandsplain Depeche Mode part 1 with my guest Patrik Sandberg HERE, and listen to the accompanying playlist HERE.
Next week…Gahan’s goatee looms eerily ahead…I make my case against Corbijn…I try to secure raw milk in Woodstock, NY…and more.