Bohemian rhapsody
The veteran Essex electro-behemoths bring the darkness to the Czech capital.
Depeche Mode Eden Arena, Prague
It’s so typical of Depeche Mode, surely the world’s most eccentric stadium rock band, that the pivotal part of their new live show is where you’d least expect. A study of the Global Spirit Tour’s previous setlists suggests the visit to SK Slavia Prague’s home ground will have some obvious peaks: a closing Never Let Me Down Again, with legendary choreographed hand-wave routine; an encore featuring David Bowie’s “Heroes” closely followed by Personal Jesus’s pneumatic mass; perhaps Where’s The Revolution will be Mode’s latest people-pleaser. Logic does not, however, indicate a non-hit single from an album the band didn’t tour, sung by their secondary vocalist, as the point where particles rearrange and the show’s emotional arc shifts decisively… Yet that’s what happens when Martin Gore crunches the strings of his lime green Gretsch Falcon and propels Home, a song of thanks from a lost soul, into a hallowed place. He may be the band’s creative force but Gore makes a gauche frontman, unlike Dave Gahan’s snake-hipped force of nature. Still sporting eyeliner, glitter makeup and that insolent blond hair, he trembles in the spotlight ceded to him for this song and the preceding A Question Of Lust. Whereas Gahan sprints down the long walkway into the audience, Gore jogs dutifully, as if under doctor’s orders, conducting the crowd like an uncertain tourist offering directions. For the Prague devoted, of course, such dysfunction is pure à la Mode, and their acclaim for Gore tips into mania when Gahan re-emerges to demonstrate how it should be done, then applaud his bandmate. It’s a lovely moment, testimony to the emotional investment that has held these very
different characters together for so long. On his keyboard riser, Andy Fletcher shuffles awkwardly, venturing an occasional outbreak of shadow puppetry. He doesn’t need to do anything else, because between Gore’s songs and Gahan’s hips, chutzpah and deep-pile vocal resonance, Mode have cracked the riddle of the master/servant creative dichotomy more successfully than any band since The Who. Gahan is such a formidable performer he can shoulder the setlist’s brooding phases, applying intense supplication as well as camp comedy where appropriate – or even not, like the melancholic climax of So Much Love where he breaks into a funky chicken routine. It’s Gahan’s menace that drummer Christian Eigner locks onto for the roiling Barrel Of A Gun, while any 55-year-old who can essay 360- degree spins with such panache is justified in flaunting the fact. As expected from a band with 30 years’ experience of making football venues feel small, the Anton Corbijn-directed staging is monumentally effective, be it the impressionist artwork that slowly de-evolves during opener Going Backwards or animated feet and fist projections for Where’s The Revolution. When MOJO meets him beforehand, Gore is feeling fretful about the curfew that forces the show to start early, but the twilight rather suits the foreboding tenor of the new songs. Injecting scepticism to the quasi political nature of a stadium gig – as in … Revolution’s refrain, “Come on people! You’re letting me down!” – is a classic Depeche trick. Indeed, the ambivalence and subversive intent that took hold circa Construction Time Again is a predominant theme of this current production, even amid a final third where the canon’s big guns are unleashed. Everything Counts remains as persuasive a pop critique of global capitalism as it did in 1983, with the crowd’s roar of recognition as Gore hammers out the riff prompting a face-splitting grin from long-time auxiliary keyboardist Peter Gordeno. Then there’s the ground-quaking melodic undertow of a final triad that begins with Stripped, ends with Never Let Me Down Again and inevitably peaks with Enjoy The Silence, after which Gahan grabs Gore for a big kiss. Gore’s solo Somebody heralds an encore sequence that’s one emotive push after another. Amid big noise Mode staples I Feel You and Personal Jesus, the arrangement of “Heroes”, with Gordeno playing bass, is unexpectedly thoughtful. Apt too, of course, because it was with this song that Gahan auditioned his way into Depeche Mode almost 40 years ago. Afterwards, the singer admits such shared history is more important than ever for bonding these oddballs together; that, and pragmatic recognition of each other’s strengths. “I used to be a car thief from Essex and I’m in a band with its own plane!” he laughs. “We must be doing something right. I get a couple of my songs in the mix nowadays, but Martin’s the guy. I’m fine with that.” Celebrating the collective power of diversity: Depeche Mode’srestive spirit feels made for these precarious times.
“BETWEEN GORE’S SONGS AND GAHAN’S HIPS, MODE CRACK THE CREATIVE RIDDLE BETTER THAN ANY BAND SINCE THE WHO.”