LISTEN: Dave Gahan 2003-08-02 Detroit, MI - Master Cassette Recording

Almost 21 years ago to the day. This was the first concert I ever recorded as a sophomore in High School. These early tapes were pretty rough, not very good to what they sound like today. But I am still very happy for how they sound for the time and resources I had available back then. I worked all summer in order to purchase the audio equipment (which then stopped going soon after, ha) for the show. A Sony ECM-717 mic, which I still have to this day and a Sony Cassette Deck I bought at a local music store. It was pretty much for voice recordings and not for high SPLs. Which you’ll hear a lot of sibilance in the early tapes. New methods of transferring and slight EQ definitely help these earlier tapes.

My dad is a big Depeche Mode fan and he willingly went to the show with me. It was always a big deal when my dad did stuff like this with me, as he works very hard and now older understand the responsibilities he had. It was moved from the State Theater down to the Majestic Theatre a few weeks before the show. I would assume because ticket sales were not that great. But I remember the Majestic being packed for the show and definitely a more proper venue size for DG. I had starting trading tapes (CDs) through the mail with other collectors earlier this year. I met a guy named, Moto (dmplus) in some Depeche Mode message boards. He was like my yoda. He had been taping concerts since the 80s and some of his tapes are my favorite I have ever heard. Especially Nagoya 1990 of Depeche Modes. Since we had a computer at our house that was always down, thanks to 3 kids downloading music off Morpheus/Kazaa/Whatever P2P sharing you can think of bringing in virus after virus. I had to ride my bike to the library every morning in order to see if Moto responded via email. Maybe even go later in the day. But we would chat about everything I needed to do in order to ensure a decent tape. I owe a lot to him for taking the time to show me the ropes. For my first recording, I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I look back at this tape with fondness and happy to know that this hobby has brought me so much joy over the years and I have been fortunate to meet a lot of great people because of it.