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London O2 Arena, 16 December 2009
As we handed over the tickets at the entrance to the O2's seating
area, the security guard next to us struck up a conversation with
someone in the queue next to us. It was a man with his son, the
kid being probably ten or eleven years old. I didn't catch exactly
what he said to the man, but he responded 'It's his first concert'.
I only mention this because sixteen years and two
days before this concert was my very first one, and that band was
Depeche Mode, at the NEC Arena in Birmingham. Although
by that point I'd been a music fan for years, I hadn't shown any
interest whatsoever in live music at all; in fact I'd go so far
as to say that I was positively intimidated by the very thought
of it. After that first concert, there was a gap before I started
gigging in comparative earnest ever since. Despite Depeche Mode
being, after Erasure, my favourite band, as they took to the stage
at the O2 I felt suitably ashamed that the last time I saw them
was at the NEC all those years ago.
In 1993, Depeche Mode were just embarking on the
journey into rock demagoguery that very nearly destroyed the band,
and almost killed front man Dave Gahan. The Dave
Gahan that emerged from the studio with Songs Of Faith And Devotion
was barely recognisable from the clean-cut, youthful guy who'd previously
fronted the band. In his place was a long-haired, gaunt man whose
frame was covered in tattoos and whose persona was suddenly the
distillation of all the rock stars who'd come before him. With the
new look and more obviously rock sound – the first time you heard
the opening feedback and heavy blues riffing on lead single 'I Feel
You' was jawdroppingly different from anything they'd done
up until then – came the requisite rock posturing and ultimately
the attendant drugs, overdose, clinical death, rehab and finally
the return to form that ensued.
It's tempting to try and draw comparisons between
my first Depeche Mode concert, and this, my second, but it's futile.
The band aren't the same, for a start, given that in the intervening
years multi-instrumentalist Alan Wilder has long-since departed
and the core axis of Gahan, Martin Gore and Andrew
Fletcher has been expanded to include keyboardist Peter
Gordeno and drummer Christian Eigner. Gore now spends most of his
time on the guitar, adding lines to tracks that never previously
having them, leaving x to do the majority of keyboard work. Fletch,
who for the majority of the band's career has had a somewhat negligible
role, continues to confound. Watching the stage from our bird's
eye seats overlooking the stage from the left, it was clear that
Fletch's fingers were barely ever on his keyboards, but ours is
not to reason why. In fact, at the very end, Gahan offered a big
thanks to Depeche's third member, so perhaps his role is simply
understated.
Gahan, who underwent cancer surgery this year, was
ever the energetic front man, never pausing in his elastic movements
around the stage. Tracks like 'Wrong' and 'Hole To Feed', two of
the four tracks taken from Sounds Of The Universe, or the
enraged 'A Question Of Time' (one of three songs taken from the
1986 watershed album Black Celebration, a pivotal point
in the band's descent into darker territories) were delivered with
a vocal strength that was only ever hinted at on the studio versions.
The core of old favourites – the four singles from
Violator (the encore track 'Personal Jesus', 'World In
My Eyes', 'Policy Of Truth' and probably the best song of the entire
set, 'Enjoy The Silence'); 'Never Let Me Down Again' and 'Behind
The Wheel' from Music For The Masses; 'I Feel You', 'Walking
In My Shoes' and 'I Feel You' from Songs Of Faith And Devotion;
'Stripped' and 'A Question Of Time' from Black Celebration
– were joined by 'Miles Away' and 'In Chains' from the new album,
and 'Precious' (the solitary contribution from their last album,
2006's Playing The Angel). 'In Chains' opened proceedings, evincing
a more muscular take on the quiet visceral sound of the album version.
Martin Gore, resplendent in his usual silver attire,
took vocal duties on three slow, emotional numbers. 'Judas' and
'Home' both displayed just how powerful the quiet Gore has become
as a vocalist, while 'Dressed In Black', which opened the encore,
demonstrated the breadth of his range. The torch song style recorded
for his last Counterfeit album was very much in attendance for these
three songs.
While nothing could, or would, ever touch that 1993
concert for its sentimental impact on an impressionable young teenage
boy, the O2 concert reminded me of just how much I love this band,
and also made me kick myself for not bothering to see them at any
of the opportunities in between. I wonder what the young boy handing
over his ticket with his dad before the show made of them; perhaps
it had the same epiphanic impact on him as seeing the band in 1993
had on me.
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