2024-04-08 Lanxess-Arena, Cologne, Germany/Source 1

Notes

A very good audience recording, close to excellent quality. The only detractor is a somewhat noisy woman to the left of the taper and slightly noisy crowd around the taper, but to be fair, this is the last concert of the tour so the crowd damn well should be excited!

Comments from the taper:

This was the final gig of the tour. A large gathering of the band's family and friends (including Anton Corbijn) attended in the stage left area behind the security barriers. Dave left everything in Cologne; maximum effort! The feelings of respect, appreciation, sadness, anticipation, and relief (on the part of the crew) in the arena were palpable.

Prior to Waiting For The Night, Dave spoke to the audience. A video can be watched via this tweet posted by Tara Salt (@Dingerz). A transcription of Dave's speech is below:

Dave: Thank you very much, thank you. Uhm, wait, I think before we start this, Martin and I want to thank Pete and Christian especially, of course, for being part of what we've just been doing for the last year...

Martin: Or more.

Dave: Or more, probably, yeah. And most importantly, the road crew, all the road crew, everybody, all of them. There's like, a hundred people that make this thing happen every night. And it's really been a special tour. We've had, obviously, some challenges at the beginning. We lost our friend, and Martin and I decided to carry on and make this record.

<crowd cheers>

Dave: And we did the tour, and I'm glad we did. Anyway, most importantly, I want to thank you all for being with us all these years. It really means a lot to us. Thank you so much.

Dave also said a few words after Waiting For The Night:

Dave: Thank you very much, thank you. Before we start the next song, I forgot to mention the captain of the ship and his very very loyal sidekick: Mr. Jonathan Kessler, and Mr. Alex Pollock. They really do make all this happen, so let's hear it!

<crowd cheers>

Dave: Thank you.

Thanks to Anonymous for taping and also thanks to Mike for arranging. I'd also like to thank all of the tapers who spent their time, effort, and funds to help document this tour so well. Let's hope there will be another Depeche Mode album and tour in the not-too-distant future!

Both the original high-resolution 24-bit, 96KHz fileset and a downsampled version in 16-bit, 44.1KHz are available for download below.

Listen

You can listen to this entire recording below.

This recording is also available on YouTube, which may be more easily consumable for some:

Track list

1. [2:42] Play Intro (Speak To Me)
2. [5:14] Play My Cosmos Is Mine
3. [3:46] Play Wagging Tongue
4. [6:57] Play Walking In My Shoes
5. [5:11] Play It's No Good
6. [5:12] Play Policy Of Truth
7. [5:09] Play In Your Room
8. [8:15] Play Everything Counts
9. [5:16] Play Precious
10. [4:17] Play My Favourite Stranger
11. [3:51] Play Strangelove (*)
12. [6:09] Play Somebody (*)
13. [4:13] Play Ghosts Again
14. [5:59] Play I Feel You
15. [4:32] Play A Pain That I'm Used To
16. [5:25] Play World In My Eyes
17. [5:21] Play Black Celebration
18. [5:29] Play Stripped
19. [5:01] Play Behind The Wheel
20. [7:19] Play Enjoy The Silence
21. [3:10] Play Encore Break
22. [1:28] Play Dave Speaks
23. [6:37] Play Waiting For The Night
24. [6:35] Play Just Can't Get Enough
25. [6:36] Play Never Let Me Down Again
26. [10:50] Play Personal Jesus

• Total time: 2:20:34

Lineage

Taping location.

• Sound Professionals SP-CMC-2 (Audio Technica AT831) cardioid microphones -> Sound Professionals SP-SPSB-4 battery box -> Sony PCM-A10 recorder (24/96) -> WAV 24/96 files -> WAV files merged -> Reaper (EQ, normalization, fades) -> in Audacity 3.4.2: limiting of loud claps/noises as needed, normalization, track splits -> FLAC level 8 (24/96)
• Taper: Anonymous
• Taping location: in the 200s section, stage left, within the first few rows

Download

• Download ZIP - FLAC 16-bit 44.1KHz - 880MB
• Download ZIP - FLAC 24-bit 96KHz - 2.83GB