This Track Is Fire: Nitzer Ebb “Getting Closer”

Honestly, I meant what I said about not intending to cross-post much between this blog and my music appreciation blog, but not only did Brian Wilson pass today, but so did Douglas McCarthy (of Nitzer Ebb). So, make that two exceptions on the same day.

I would appreciate it if artists I like would kindly stop dying for the next few days.

Obviously, I am joking, but I would be lying if I said this this one didn’t hit me harder than Brian Wilson passing.

Nitzer Ebb was part of a core memory of my life, so of course I am affected by Douglas McCarthy’s passing. More on that here:

This Track Is Fire: Nitzer Ebb “Getting Closer”

When I posted earlier today about Brian Wilson I didn’t think that I would be making a second exception so soon, let alone just a few hours later.

Sadness…

We all have those songs that when we throw them on we instantly get pumped up. For me, “Getting Closer” is one of those seminal songs.

I first heard of Nitzer Ebb when I saw them on the ticket that I purchased for my first concert: Depeche Mode at Pine Knob in 1990.

I had no idea what “Nitzer Ebb” meant, but after talking to anyone who might have known I found out they were an EBM band from the UK, and were lablemates of Depeche Mode on Mute Records. They had just released their album Showtime and would be supporting DM on their “World Violation” tour that summer.

This was in the decades well before streaming, so if you wanted to check a new band out you had to actually buy their album, or in my case, their CD.

So, I did.

35 years later “Getting Closer,” as well as “Fun To Be Had” and “Lightning Man,” are still favorites of mine. That opening track will always have a special place in my heart as it illicits memories of me in my teens, driving parents’ boat, listening to my taped copy of the CD as I bounced on the waves.

In the last few years many of the bands that I grew up with have seen a resurgence via live shows. I had intended to see Nitzer Ebb again but in the last couple of years Douglas had suffered some health setbacks.

Today, he passed. 😭

Sadly, that band I saw open for Depeche Mode all those years ago will no longer be the same lacking one of its founding members.

Thank you, Douglas, for the music; it formed the soundtrack of my youth, and ultimately, my life.