Depeche mode At O2 London 27-01-24 Before We Drown

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RockSinCity
Published
The O2, London
On the latest leg of their first tour after the death of founding member Andrew Fletcher, fellow Depeche Mode mainstays Dave Gahan and Martin Gore reward fans with hits from across the decades – and seem closer than they’ve been in years



Sat 27 Jan 2024 09.00 EST


A triumphal arch dominates the stage set of Depeche Mode’s tour. The giant M stands for Memento Mori – the title of their 2023 album, widely hailed as a return to form. But that monumental M is also for Mode. Two years ago they were a band under existential threat, when founder member and keyboard player Andrew Fletcher died of heart failure. Eye-wideningly, much of the latest album’s concern with death had already been established by chief songwriter Martin Gore some time before Fletcher’s passing.

Now, Depeche Mode are on their second year of a tour of the world’s stages, pummelling audiences with caustic earworms about our flawed human nature once more. On night one of leg four, they seize their day with vigour. Singer Dave Gahan, in fine voice, often spins around on the spot, his emphatic shirt cuffs recalling the Damned’s Dave Vanian’s, but with a far more salubrious couturier.

Comfortingly mohicaned, Gore also sports his customary black nail varnish and swaps between keyboards and a low-slung semi-acoustic. Also on stage are keys player Peter Gordeno and drummer Christian Eigner, the latter perhaps a little too keen on stadium rock fills. It takes a while for an actual memento mori – a reminder that death comes to all – to appear. But giant projections of skulls covered with glitter (pace Damien Hirst) spin around during Enjoy the Silence from 1990’s Violator album, daubed with the word “enjoy”.

 The US may not remember them when they were Spandau Ballet with a dungeon in their basement, but SE10 clearly does

Better than the heavy symbolism, though, is the song’s unexpected progression tonight from a tune that recalls New Order to house piano rave breakdown, one that could have gone on for far longer. The visuals for the magnificent Everything Counts, meanwhile, elegantly enhance the song’s anti-greed message. A video of a mime with gloved white hands enacts the lyrics, like an arty sign language interpreter.
Category
Depeche Mode
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