Depeche Code Broken by Flying Rodent
Well, by now you've probably heard that Depeche Mode cancelled their show last night, after about 5 songs in. Here's what happened as near as I can tell:
Show time on the tix read:8PM. She Wants Revenge, who we were stoked to see, got put on stage 30 minutes prior to stated show time. Word in the crowd was that the promoters wanted to push the show up as early as possible to get DM on and off the stage because there was some concern over the abundance of bats up in the towers last night. Yes, there are bats galore in the Starlight towers. We see them at ever show there - inside the venue and out in the parking lots. The lights draw the bugs, which draw the bats. At any rate, we missed She Wants Revenge because they went on much earlier than stated show time (we tried to catch them at the Record Bar last winter, but the smoke was killing Sarah so we left after Roman Numerals).
DM sounded great. Dave Gahan sounded a bit off. He also looked a look like Harry Shearer in eye-liner. We heard his voice crack here and there and he did an occassional spaz move that at the time we thought was him dancing, but in hindsight I think it was him swatting bats.
The band starts into 'Stripped' and Dave does a little turn to face the band, ducks, laughs and says something like "Oh no!" The music stops, the band pauses before the music starts anew. They get through the song although Dave is visibly distressed, missing lyrics and not singing the chorus at all, instead allowing the audience to take on that duty (which he did for almost every song). The song ends, they go into another song and Dave mumbles something into to the mic (which sounded like, "My eye!") and then he runs off stage.
Martin steps up to the mic and plays a song as though this were part of the show.
Someone announces they're having some technical difficulties and that band is going to play another song because it's a bit easier at the moment. (I'm sitting with Sarah at this time and we can't see anything due to the people standing in front of us. I tell her something's wrong with Dave.)
After that song, someone announces that they've lost their "man-in-the-middle" and the show is over. No one believes it. So no one leaves. We hear whispers in the crowd about the bats.
Someone asks whether we want the show to end or to continue with Martin. The crowd cheers for the latter.
Martin announces that Dave's backstage, being treated for a minor medical emergency. He plays two songs, all the while keeping one eye up in the rafters.
The show ends, even after chants of "Martin", and we file out.
On the way to the parking lots, we hear plenty of rumors about what might have happened: Dave was jacked up on drugs, he was hungover from his b-day the night before, he had diarrhea...but the one piece of chatter that cropped up over and over again were about the Starlight bats - that one attacked him and damn near knocked him over.
This morning I check out the Buzz to see if they have any explanations. Afentra claims they know as much as we do, that backstage was on complete lockdown and people were wandering around with their contracts out. THEN, some chick calls in and mentions the bats - and that she heard Dave had to get a rabies shot! Now, someone called in right after to say there hadn't been a documented case of rabies in 30 years, so take all that with a grain of salt...
Rock, Roll and Rodents in the Air.
[Updates 1:42PM -
Aversion.com's report. - jpp]
[Update 3:40pm -
The Pitch's report. - jpp]
[Final Update - 5/11/06 8:49am
Bat Attack Captured on Film! - jpp]