Never Enough Notes e-zine // reviews + interviews + music

It is the mark of a good band when you have a good label boss behind you, but the mark of a great band when he/she actually bothers to try and see them live. In the case of Depeche Mode, mainstays on London’s Mute label since 1981-ish, svengali Daniel Miller seems to make a point in seeing his not-so-young charges once in a while and, according to the prose inside the programme for their ‘Sounds Of The Universe’ tour (of which this rescheduled gig is a part of), he goes to see the band ‘as a fan’. How utterly admirable in this day and age and, on the strength of tonight’s stunning performance, I can’t blame him.

In short, the Mode were electric on this special home-coming of sorts and there were no let-downs at all. Apart from not playing ‘I Feel Loved’, that is.

Due to living in officially the crappiest city in the world for public transport, I missed the support band Nitzer Ebb, themselves label mates for some time and erstwhile aficionados of thumping electronic body music during the 80s and early 90s. However, I was in good time to witness the energy of a man who has cheated death on a handful of occasions and looks a damn sight fitter and healthier than most 47 year old proletarians who pull on a tracksuit every morning. Fair fucking play, I say. Heroin usage is not a recommended activity at the best of times and Dave Gahan is that very rare living –proof that you CAN jack up between albums without ruining your musical appetite. Ultimately, his biggest pain has been his biggest creative gain yet also, the most stupid thing any person could ever do. He is lucky – and so are we.

Opening gambits, ‘In Chains’ and ‘Wrong’ from the recent ‘Universe’ album, sound sharp, loud and punchy compared to their studio versions, the latter sounding particularly impressive in the otherwise soul-less cabin known as the O2. But it’s the ‘Music For The Masses’/’Violator’/’Faith and Devotion’ sets that still sound like nothing else to this day, and probably never will.

MFTM is represented by the full-on high-energy charge of ‘Behind The Wheel’ and the Gahan-under-heroin-control anthem, ‘Never Let Me Down Again’, both shimmering like something written yesterday, not 23 years ago. The latter tonight could have been a bit heftier than this slightly jerky version, but you couldn’t deny the audience reaction to Gahan walking down the cat-walk part of the stage and flexing his tats during its extended rendition – now he seems to be in control of this song, these days.

‘Violator’ is revisited via the perennial singles, ‘Enjoy The Silence’ (in extended and triumphant form), ‘Policy Of Truth’ (replete with oodles of freshly inflated balloons, bounced and popped by the eager audience), the fidgety electro-disco of ‘World In My Eyes’ and the obvious encore inclusion of ‘Personal Jesus’ – how DID this song only reach number 13 upon its release?

Two of the evening’s further highlights came from the ‘Songs Of Faith & Devotion’ album, ‘I Feel You’ and the powerful favourite, ‘Walking In My Shoes’, a song that, when played live pisses all over the shuffling album mix by about twenty aeons. What a closing melody it has.

Talking of highlights and nape-hair tickling melodies, ‘Stripped’ (one of several early tunes on show and an encore choice) is performed with a real nerve-twitching whip-crack drum-beat that yearned to be extended for a good twenty minutes – and I still wouldn’t have been bored. Fuck a chair-leg, it was good even beyond what the Mode have been capable of in the past. Another two stunners arrived in the form of ‘Ultra’ single, ‘It’s No Good’, an intrinsically simple love song (of sorts) that sparkled and oomphed along with bravado and gusto, plus the melancholic and understated paean to darkness, ‘In Your Room’.

Martin Gore, the band’s chief provider of all of these hits, sang a few solo renditions tonight and it reminded everyone in the arena just what a damn fine singer he is and, of course, an even better songwriter. One of my top 10 Mode songs, ‘Home’, made so much sense sung with just a piano accompaniment while ‘Freelove’, one of the few stand-outs on the 2001 album ‘Exciter’, also tugged at the tear-ducts with another sigh-inducing melody from the depths of despair.

After wishing tour-keyboardist Peter Gordeno a ‘happy birthday’ with a bit of good old (badly sung) audience participation, Gore launched into another ballad recital, this time with ‘A Question Of Lust’. He held his watchers, his nerve and his notes remarkably well yet again.

If you get a chance to see Depeche Mode in the future, I promise you one thing – you will NOT be disappointed in the slightest. Unless you are the chirruping loud-mouthed female after the show, who was stumbling and blathering her way past the face-less eating establishments, bemoaning (in true pissed Londoner-stylee) that ‘they fackin’ didn’t play ‘Juss Carn Git Enuff’(sic) before drunkenly applying the usual British inability to multi-task when hammered i.e. sing it back in tune whilst walking along in a straight line. Why the fuck go to a gig waiting for one song? Pffft, dullard.

Tonight, it was about the album ‘Sounds Of The Universe’ hence the inclusion of the bluesy ‘Miles Away’ et al. More than that, Depeche Mode sounded like the universe itself. Really, REALLY amazing.

Special note to TFL – if you are intent on causing the most amount of mayhem to one of the most densely-populated cities in the western world, please do continue to do so by closing tube-lines at the weekend and providing inadequate alternatives to get home after main events and running no trains after 12:20 on the few tube lines you can be arsed to operate. That way, the entire world will laugh at us even more than they do already as Olympics punters take 150 minutes to travel 15 miles home, as I had to afterwards. Thanks. Thanks a lot. 2am I got home. I only live in bloody West London.

Depeche Mode – 9/10

TFL – Fuck right off.

By Paul Pledger