1998-12-02 Idaho Center, Boise, ID, USA/Source 2

Notes

A very good audience recording of the soundcheck before the concert. Here are the original taper's notes (edited for clarity):

My personal DAT master from the soundcheck before the show. I had a friend who ran a local stage crew and was often hired by national acts coming through to set up staging, lights, etc at the venue. He mentioned he was doing the Depeche Mode show and I asked if I could actually work on the crew for the day. Of course my intent was to record the soundcheck, and it turned out brilliantly. For this tour, the band used the large lighted "DM" on the stage, which I was able to help set up and test. When the band turned up for their soundcheck, all of the crew was asked to leave the arena and stand backstage. I quickly ducked into the restrooms to set up the gear (which you will hear during the first minute or so) and then back out to stand next to the stage.

A couple of times [during the recording,] you will hear handlers asking the crew to please stay behind the backstage curtain, but I was able to move in front and lean against the side of the stage to record the soundcheck in it's entirety without hassle. I have to admit it was kinda cool to see the band just dressed in regular street clothes play their music for an empty arena. Since this was recorded literally 15 feet from the band, and with all the lights on while standing right next to the band's entourage, I was quite sure that someone would notice me recording and ask me to stop, but it never happened. I was told later that the band did this longer soundcheck to prepare for the upcoming KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas set and live broadcast which would take place a few days later in Los Angeles. Consequently, most of these soundchecked versions are in a very interesting acoustic format.

My recording circulates within the DM community but only from an analog transfer as I didn't have the capability to do digital transfers at that time. There was also some EQ'ing done to that version. This is my raw DAT master, presented with no post-processing whatsoever.

This soundcheck features the band rehearsing acoustic renditions of a few songs, including Behind The Wheel (whch had not been played previously on the Singles tour) for their upcoming appearance at the 1998-12-12 KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas Festival.

Listen

You can listen to this entire recording below.

Track list

1. [1:10] Play Gear Setup
2. [2:48] Play Sister Of Night (Instrumental)
3. [1:00] Play Gear Setup
4. [1:34] Play Enjoy The Silence (Instrumental with Martin guitar solo)
5. [3:54] Play Enjoy The Silence (Dave Vocals)
6. [0:21] Play Enjoy The Silence (Guitar Intro)
7. [3:34] Play Enjoy The Silence (Complete 1)
8. [1:44] Play Band Discussion
9. [3:37] Play Enjoy The Silence (Complete 2)
10. [2:17] Play Band Discussion (Working out Behind The Wheel)
11. [5:44] Play Behind The Wheel (Complete 1)
12. [3:08] Play Band Discussion
13. [5:41] Play Behind The Wheel (Complete 2)
14. [2:43] Play Drums & Keyboard
15. [4:14] Play Sister Of Night (Take 1)
16. [1:32] Play Drums
17. [2:52] Play Sister Of Night (Take 2)
18. [1:34] Play Drums
19. [4:46] Play Sister Of Night (Take 3)
20. [3:44] Play A Question Of Lust (Take 1)
21. [3:26] Play Band Discussion
22. [4:45] Play A Question Of Lust (Take 2)

• Total time: 1:06:08

Lineage

• Sonic Studio DSM6 microphones + PA-6LC + Sony PCM-M1 DAT Recorder -> digital transfer to PC via egosys2496 -> FLAC level 8
• Taper & transfer: JLW
• Taping location: recorded leaning against the side of the stage, about 15 feet from the band
• Generation: master
• Original info file included

Download

• Download ZIP - FLAC 16-bit 44.1KHz - 214.86MB