Day 25: A Fine Line Between Genius and Insanity

Day 25 – Your craziest moment as a Depeche Mode fan

Somehow on Twitter this evolved to “your proudest/most shameful moment,” which changes the meaning of this question. Being crazy can make you embarrassed or proud, sure. But what I really meant was that time when you did something that made you step back and go, “Man, are you nuts?!” Here’s my case in point:

I am generally a very blessed person, but I am not statistically “lucky” in the traditional sense. I don’t win raffles or lottos, I don’t find crazy deals at the record stores or video outlets (e.g. employee mistakes), and I don’t meet celebrities at random. Meeting a member of Depeche Mode is the dream of 99% of DM fans. For the fans that have met the band, this usually happens from physically being in the right place at the right time, network connections, or through winning contests or charity auctions. Every once in a while, DM or Dave will do a record signing event, but these seem to be fairly rare (you could probably count them on your fingers and toes over 30 years). 

In the mid-naughties I was convinced that if I wanted to meet anyone in the band, I would have to make it happen (short of stalking – a big no-no). DM did a record signing in NYC in 2005, and I was devastated I couldn’t go. In early 2007, I got to meet Martin at one of his DJ gigs at Old King’s Road in Santa Barbara– thanks to somebody accidentally posting the date two weeks in advance. Santa Barbara is a good 6-7 hours from me by car, so that trip takes more than a few days’ notice, as used to be standard. I’ll go more into the details of that event at a later time; it was not the craziest moment.

When Dave was promoting Hourglass with no tour dates to be heard of, my friends and I got antsy. Were we going to get to hear these awesome new songs live?! With no tour dates in sight, DaveGahan.com announced a two-day event in NYC – one day a free show at the Soho Apple Store, and the next a signing at Best Buy. I was immediately emailing my devotee-in-crime, Tara, about whether she would go with me. I thought it would be my only chance to see these songs live, and my only chance to meet Dave (like the Holy Grail, he is). With only two weeks before the event, we were arranging a stay with a friend, booking tickets and notifying our managers/professors of our leave. Mind you, I was in my final year at university, in the middle of the semester, with a ton of work.

There are far too many details and anecdotes about this trip to cover in this 30-day challenge, but let me summarize: I took a red-eye flight out of Sacramento (about a 5-hour flight not including layover), landed in NYC at 5am local time, got my wristband for the signing at 7am (luggage in-tow), and got in line for the SoHo show at 10am (sans luggage). The show was more intimate than I could imagine, and meeting Dave was beyond thrilling. (Details to come later, I promise!) I spent just a little over 48 hours in NYC on maybe 10 hours of sleep across three days. I then got stuck on the tarmack in La Guardia for two hours, which left me stranded in Chicago overnight due to a missed connection. Bank account nearly empty, I slept in the terminal so I could take a 6am flight to LA to get me back to Sacramento. It was a dream come true, though, and every bit of stress and WTFery was worth it. (I have not met Dave again since.) I plan elaborating more on this NYC Hourglass experience at a later date, since my poll seems to indicate you all want to read more about my personal experiences! I can’t believe it will have been five years this fall!

So my craziest “moment” is actually a series of three days. It’s actually tied with my flying out to Germany for the End of the Universe, with nothing but a promise from a stranger for tickets and a place to crash, which I will cover in another post shortly.