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Words are not enough to express what I felt in Budapest on June 23, 2009, on the Puskas Ferenc stadium. My heart beat faster and the overwhelming feeling that Depeche Mode is my life was never stronger.

Budapest is a cool city, with large roads (Vaci Utca rules), good food (goulash rules) and very cheap beer (0.33 Euro for a 0.5 l beer). I arrived in Budapest straight from Germany (after the Blackfield Festival), on June 22. The weather was obnoxious, and so had been in Germany (4 days). Hope for a little sunshine at the Depeche Mode concert on the next day (June 23) was absolutely normal. We were not that lucky though…

The day of the concert was cloudy and we hoped it would not rain. We found parking near the stadium easily. We saw fake T-shirts outside the stadium and real stuff inside. We bought the tour books and T-shirts of all sorts… As I was wearing my boots and DM outfit somebody at the entrance told me: COOL! pointing at my huge black boots. I liked that. Nice surprise: most of the security spoke Romanian! Cool.

We found a nice spot, very close to the stage. We took millions of pictures of ourselves with or without the stage behind us, in a group or separately, etc. It was good fun! The stadium is nice, everything went smooth, except for the exit that was a nightmare. ONE exit for the standing crowd.

One thing that I will never forget is the efficiency of the security company they hired in Budapest. As drunks were pushing and shoving and clinging onto people in the audience, the guards were taking them out nicely and smoothly. Unfortunately, towards the end, we noticed that 2 guards were really beating a guy, but maybe that was just because he would not leave the stadium…

The concert itself was memorable. The best ever. I cried in my own pain (as I did in 2006, in Bucharest), I remembered all my lonely years listening to DM until my cassette tapes would die… I remembered that their music was my mother and father, I remembered that everything I ever lacked in my childhood was always quickly replaced by a line or two in a Depeche Mode song. I will never forget the Master and Servant WE sang because Dave refused to sing without the headset (that broke for a few minutes), I will never forget he came out in the rain to sing, I will never forget that he talked to us and asked “Are you still with us?” as the rain was absolutely pouring… Yes! It rained cats and dogs. It rained in my mouth and nose as I was singing along. And the pouring rain felt like a connection to higher forces that just gave me a piece of perfect love at the right time. I felt connected to every person on the stadium and to the music flowing better than ever. And to the crazy Dave who was shaking that ass better than ever! God, he’s got his smile back…

The setlist was (Jezebel and Question of Lust again!)

• 1. In Chains
  2. Wrong
  3. Hole To Feed
  4. Walking In My Shoes
  5. It’s No Good
  6. A Question Of Time
  7. Precious
  8. Fly On The Windscreen
  9. Jezebel
  10. A Question Of Lust
  11. Come Back
  12. Peace
  13. In Your Room
  14. I Feel You
  15. Policy Of Truth
  16. Enjoy The Silence
  17. Never Let Me Down Again

Encore:

• 1. Stripped
  2. Master And Servant
  3. Strangelove

Encore 2:

• 1. Personal Jesus
  2. Waiting For The Night

These are some of the photos we took in Budapest and at the concert.

I love Depeche Mode. I love them in every way. I am going to Porto to see them again. And I am not FOLLOWING THEM AROUND. I am just fulfilling a lifelong dream.

It was my second time in Rome, so I knew exactly what to expect. I am not going to bother you with details about the ancient city. Go see it, but take my advice: better focus on the architecture and historical sites than on the people.

I am going to tell you just a few things related to the Depeche Mode concert in Rome:

1. the Olympic Stadium was 30 min walking distance from the Vatican. Nice stroll. The Olympic Stadium (Lazio shares is with some other team, I cannot remember which one) was very impressive. The stadium lies in a huge park with outdoor stages, a lot of trees, statues and nice alleys. Sitting on a bench in the twilight, waiting to enter the actual stadium to see Depeche Mode again (the second time this year, after Tel Aviv), I had the strange/strong feeling that I was hanging in the sky while the whole nature stood still, just to prepare the grand entrance of the Kings. I had that feeling most probably because of the huge plane trees that seem to be carved in the sky, never moving and seeming to protect the whole city of Rome.

2. as we were getting closer to the stadium, the piles of dirt, the number of people already partying loud, and the quantity of fake Depeche Mode merchandise started to increase.

3. I tried to pay for one of those T-shirts with a 50 Eur banknote, and the seller refused it informing me: “it is fake… you know, with this Depeche Mode concert, many fake…”. I started yelling at him as I felt hurt and humiliated. Now I understand what he meant… He was selling fake T-shirts, so he probably expected everyone to have “fake” something on them… Including money!

4. after the concert, on my way out (but still inside the stadium, not outside) I bought a T-shirt for my daughter. The only place where I could find a size that suits her… Surprisingly, the T-shirt was also a fake. So they were allowed to sell that crap even inside the stadium…

5. we had a good laugh with the waiters in a restaurant on our way back to the Vatican, after the concert, reading what was written on the back of my daughter’s T-shirt. The list of cities where DM were having concerts contained 2 misspelled words: BUTAPEST (instead of Budapest) and ISTABUL (instead of Istanbul).

6. for hours on end, before and during the concert, hundreds of people sold 5 Eur worth .33l beer. Not the price bothered me. The fact that the sellers kept walking so slowly through the crowd, sometimes laughing at the people who were dancing or screaming, bothering everyone constantly with their mere presence really upset me. Maybe this is the way it always is in Rome, but even in Bucharest, if you want a drink during a concert, you buy it from a booth. Sometimes we have some guys deliver the drinks from a tank they carry on their backs, but they sell legally…

7. there were no people singing Depeche Mode songs before the concert. No phones ringing Depeche Mode tones…nothing. People did not know the lyrics  that well and sang along less than in Tel Aviv and Budapest (2009) and Bucharest, Romania (the country who learned English listening to Depeche Mode!) and Istanbul, Turkey (both in 2006). There was less joy after seeing Depeche Mode in Rome than anywhere else. This is just a personal opinion, so do not get angry if you felt something else! Just take the time to write about it, and send me a link.

8. I also remember I was not feeling well and the sound was bad and I could not stand the smell of marijuana on the stadium…

The setlist was (no Jezebel this time as you can see, and no In Sympathy):

1. In Chains

2. Wrong

3. Hole To Feed

4. Walking In My Shoes

5. It’s No Good

6. A Question Of Time

7. Precious

8. Fly On The Windscreen

9. Little Soul

10. Home

11. Come Back

12. Peace

13. In Your Room

14. I Feel You

15. Policy Of Truth

16. Enjoy The Silence

17. Never Let Me Down Again

Encore:

18. Stripped

19. Master And Servant

20. Strangelove

Encore 2:

21. Personal Jesus

22. Waiting For The Night