More Than A Party

Never having really been a Depeche Mode fan, I have not been able to share the excitement (yawn!) that comes to a head tonight when an expected audience in excess of 50,000 will watch them kick off a World Tour with a concert in Tel Aviv’s Ramat Gan Stadium.

In all honesty, they have always seemed more than a little wierd to me. Sure, you can say the same thing about many pop idols past and present but you have to wonder about a band that requests the production crew prepare an on stage juice machine and peeled carrots for them together with honey, vitamin C tablets, vodka, wine and beer. Only thing missing is a vegetarian Vindaloo.

Whatever!

Perhaps more interesting to an “Israel Watcher” are some other aspects of the concert logistics. 50,000 is a whole lot of people in one place for this little country and the traffic congestion will be phenomenal. So the police have put together and published a plan of road closures and diversions.

The best part of this is their recommendation that concert-goers forgo their motor vehicles and get to the concert by taking the train to Tel Aviv University or Bnei Brak, the two closest train stations.

Someone forgot to tell them that these stations will be closed by the time the performance gets out!