Caligula - Sydney - June 14 2024

In 1994 Sydney band Caligula supported Depeche Mode on their last Australian tour. Thirty years later they decided to pay tribute to them by playing Depeche Mode’s seventh album “Violator” in its entirety. I’d recently seen Caligula supporting Pop Will Eat Itself and I was impressed with their sound and musicianship. I wasn’t sure how well they’d manage to recreate “Violator”, but I know a huge Depeche Mode fan who was keen to go, so I thought we’d go along.

By the time Caligula came on stage, the place was packed. I’m not sure if most people were there to see them or to listen to the songs of Depeche Mode. However, it didn’t really matter as the excitement throughout the room was what counted. It should be stressed that Caligula aren’t normally a tribute band. So they did a great job mastering these songs. I did try to capture a couple of the lesser know tracks from the album but my camera was playing up (perhaps it was the lasers). Unfortunately, I ended up with only these three:

Policy of Truth (00:04)
Enjoy the Silence (04:52)
In Your Room (09:05)

Yes, “In Your Room” is not on “Violator”, but the band finished up with an encore of four additional songs. It was a great night, and as Depeche Mode have continually ignored Australia in their world tours, it’ll probably be as close as I ever get to hearing their music live. Thanks Caligula.