The first minutes of any gig are vitally important for whipping the crowd into a frenzy.
It could be argued that Depeche Mode fans generally do not need much encouragement, such is the fervour they have for the band when on tour.
Still, Depeche have created some dramatic opening cues over the years.
The slowly building Pimpf from the Music For The Masses Tour was one; the loud thunder claps and lightning/strobe strikes which fed into Higher Love on the Devotional Tour was another.
The World Violation tour used a shorter version of the b-side to Policy Of Truth, when it was released as the third single from Violator to coincide with the start of nearly 90 gigs in 1990.
The track would pump out nosily as the band assembled behind curtains adorned in a giant “D” and “M” either side of a Violator rose.
The effect worked.
All hell would be breaking loose (in a good way) in the crowd by the time the first song, World In My Eyes, kicked in.
Sadly, as we all know, the lack of an official video from the tour means that fans have to rely on rough and ready clips from the web.
The short clips from the Dodger Stadium gig in Los Angeles, found by band’s “webmaster” Daniel Barassi in 2002, do not do the experience of the tour much justice.
Still, here is Kaleid:
And here is the Policy Of Truth b-side version of the track: