Depeche Mode - One Night in Paris (The Exciter Tour 2001)

Rating:
Summary: I had to give this 4 stars, HOWEVER...
Review: Since I'm a huge DM fan, I had to give this DVD set 4 stars.... HOWEVER I am really disappointed by Dave's vocals. If I were to be completely objective, this would probably only rate as a 2.5 star. I guess if you're tone deaf, Dave's pitch won't bother you - But I found his flat tone difficult to swallow. I would only recommend these DVD's for hard-core DM fans, as newer fans may be put off by Dave's bad vocals...and we don't want that, do we?!

Rating:
Summary: DM Still Shines
Review: DM, is that Depeche Mode? Or Dave and Martin? In the not too distant past this was a real band, now it's basically a duo with a backing band. Andy Fletcher still plays synthesizer, but gets little cred' in this one. The fourth member, Alan Wilder, has gone on to do his own thing (Recoil). The additional musicians aren't real members of DM, so it's really a differnt animal than what we devout fans have been accustomed to. Though relying on hired hans really isn't too different than relying on drum machines and tape players as the band always has.
The duo of Dave Gahan and Martin Gore have always been to Depeche what John Lennon and Paul McCartney were to the Beatles. They are still capable of delivering, but to the true fan, the ommision of Wilder is kind of glaring. He was, after all the most dexterously skilled muscian in the band. While Martin appears better than ever, Dave, however, seems to have slipped a little. His theatrics are pure genious, but his singing skills are much better in the studio, where he can do retakes, than they are live.
For the casual fan this is a good buy, it's worth far more the the $20, or so, you'll spend on it. For the devout fan - just buy it, you know you have to have it. You may be slightly disappointed if you're expecting the band that did the SOFAD tour, or "Devotional" film, but after several viewings you will come to love it as I have.


Rating:
Summary: They look depressed
Review: I've never seen a band look more depressed than Martin and Dave onstage during this show. I swear at times it looks like Martin is EMBARASSED to be there. The audience rarely participated in the songs. The set list is boring. Dave looks like he's impersonating his own moves from the Devotional tour. He's off-key in the worst way. The set looks like it was put together in five minutes. What a sad tour.

Rating:
Summary: Good....
Review: But could of been alot better. I just feel that DM just didn't bring their A game on this DVD. "The dead of night" "when the boby speaks" were subpar performances and could of been left off and replaced with "stripped", "question of time" "strange love" or "world in my eyes". The fact that none of these songs were included on the play list astonishes me. An other thing that hurts the DVD is the fact that David seems to just leave when he feels like it and have his guitarist sing on "It soesn't matter two" and "breath". I have no idea why he does this. What was he thinking? The guitarist's singing skills are something to be desired and I wasn't amused by Gahan's antics. Aside from that, the show is pretty good but I know DM can do better. I've seen them do better.