Tribute acts get dismissed until you stand in a room where four hundred people are singing a synth line together, and then the argument gets much harder to make. Depeche Mode occupies an unusual place in Southern California specifically — it is the band that a generation of Latino kids in the Inland Empire and East LA claimed as their own, so completely that the devotion here has no real parallel anywhere else in the country. That crowd is who fills these nights. The band doing the playing takes the material seriously enough to get the gear right rather than just the haircuts. Expect black clothing, expect people who came with the same friends they went to the original shows with. Music at 9:00 PM in Ventura on East Thompson Boulevard. This particular devotion is a whole regional subculture, and the shows are where it becomes visible to itself.
Tribute acts get dismissed until you stand in a room where four hundred people are singing a synth line together, and then the argument gets much harder to make. Depeche Mode occupies an unusual place in Southern California specifically — it is the band that a generation of Latino kids in the Inland Empire and East LA claimed as their own, so completely that the devotion here has no real parallel anywhere else in the country. That crowd is who fills these nights. The band doing the playing takes the material seriously enough to get the gear right rather than just the haircuts. Expect black clothing, expect people who came with the same friends they went to the original shows with. Music at 9:00 PM in Ventura on East Thompson Boulevard. This particular devotion is a whole regional subculture, and the shows are where it becomes visible to itself.
Tribute acts get dismissed until you stand in a room where four hundred people are singing a synth line together, and then the argument gets much harder to make. Depeche Mode occupies an unusual place in Southern California specifically — it is the band that a generation of Latino kids in the Inland Empire and East LA claimed as their own, so completely that the devotion here has no real parallel anywhere else in the country. That crowd is who fills these nights. The band doing the playing takes the material seriously enough to get the gear right rather than just the haircuts. Expect black clothing, expect people who came with the same friends they went to the original shows with. Music at 9:00 PM in Ventura on East Thompson Boulevard. This particular devotion is a whole regional subculture, and the shows are where it becomes visible to itself.