Plenty of bands from the 1980s have joined the nostalgia circuit, touring regularly as part of package shows or popping up at local festivals to crank out the hits. Forty-three years into their career, Depeche Mode is still filling arenas and making vital new music.
The British band – now mainly comprised of lead singer David Gahan and guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist Martin Gore after the untimely death of keyboardist Andrew Fletcher last year – released one of the best albums of its career, “Memento Mori,” in March and has been on an extensive world tour in support ever since.
I first saw Depeche Mode back in 1988 on the “Music for the Masses” tour at the long-gone Southern Star Amphitheater at Six Flags. It was an inauspicious venue for a band that was on the cusp of becoming worldwide superstars two years later with the seminal album “Violator.”
To my surprise – and pleasure – there was a great number of fans at last night’s Memento Mori tour stop at State Farm Arena wearing t-shirts from both that 1988 show and “Violator.” It was interesting to be in a nearly sold-out capacity crowd of people my own age. I surmised the average age of the audience was about 50, although there was a 13-year-old behind me who knew every word to every song.
Gahan and Gore are both in their early 60s now but have the energy of gentlemen half that age. Gahan’s gyrating, posturing, and dramatic baritone haven’t diminished a bit, while Gore’s tenor and muscular guitar work give the band its trademark sound.
Depeche Mode is still – at heart – a synth band, but the clanging, crunching guitar sound introduced on “Violator” and “Songs of Faith and Devotion” is what vaulted the outfit out of the 80s and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020.
Those expecting to hear the early hits might have been slightly disappointed since the 23-song set only featured a handful of early favorites – notably “Everything Counts,” “Just Can’t Get Enough” and “A Question of Lust.” Most of the evening consisted of tunes from “Violator” forward, which gave the band – augmented by Christian Eigner on drums/keyboards and Peter Gordeno on keyboards/bass – the opportunity to present a setlist of churning and percolating rock music.
Later, hard-hitting songs like “Walking in My Shoes,” “It’s No Good” and “John the Revelator” drove the night forward, but it was “Violator”-era “Enjoy the Silence” and the sleazy churn of “Personal Jesus” that had the crowd on its feet. “World In My Eyes” from the same album was dedicated to the late Fletcher. The single “Ghosts Again” from the new album is as good as anything they’ve done in the last four decades.
But the evening’s most arresting moment was also its most quiet: Gahan and Gore at the foot of the catwalk sharing impeccable harmonies on the delicate “Waiting for the Night.” The audience was quiet and still, swaying with cell phone flashlights on.
Some fans were concerned that the death of Fletcher might signal the end of Depeche Mode, but the vitality of the Memento Mori album and tour is evidence that there’s still plenty of life – and music – to be lived.