Depeche Mode
Manchester Arena
Friday 15 November 2013
The Basildon
boys arrived in Manchester for the latest show of their Delta Machine
tour. Promoting the finest album in
their thirty-three years history, still packing out the Arena venues and rumoured
to be headlining at Glastonbury 2014.
There’s always a
huge sense of anticipation before their shows.
Anyone who’s ever seen them will know that they have it down to a fine
art. Tour after tour they never seem to
disappoint and this was no exception.
With a back
catalogue of almost two hundred songs to choose from, there are always people
that will be disappointed that their favourite wasn’t played, but the quality
of a Depeche Mode show makes you forget.
With a stage set
of three huge (and we’re talking HUGE) screens which played back images, lyrics
and video footage of the band in amazing quality, there was always somewhere to
look. The imagery was fascinating and
worked superbly well with the music.
Surely Anton Corbijn was involved somewhere?
Supported on
stage by Peter Gordano (keyboards, guitar) and Christian Eigner (drums), Dave
Gahan, Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher looked comfortable and confident
throughout the ninety minute set list. The
band has taken on more of a ‘live’ performance over the years, as opposed to a
pre-recorded backing, and the atmosphere has intensified as a result. The percussion of Eigner was particularly
superb adding power and another dimension to the tracks. Given the very analogue feel of Delta
Machine, this made for a particularly interesting sound.
Gore less than
happy for the start, almost going through the motions, until he slowly moved
into gear, maybe weighing up the audience?
Fletch gave his best Kraftwerk audition and Gahan spun and ran and
twirled around the stage often with microphone in Freddie Mercury pose to the
joy of the twenty thousand strong audience.
Opening with the
first of five tracks from Delta Machine, ‘Welcome To My World’ started slowly
and maybe isn’t an ideal choice as an opener due to its slow nature, similarly
‘Angel’, whilst well received, didn’t seem to have the kick it has in its
recorded version. But then things
started to step up a notch. The music
got louder, the atmosphere intensified and ‘Walking In My Shoes’ blew the socks
off everyone. Maybe the sound wasn’t
quite right at the start? Maybe the crowd
expected too much too soon? We’ll
probably never know, or care, as everyone soon forgot.
There were
surprises in the set list. ‘Black
Celebration’ for one seemed an unusual choice but had everyone singing along to
the chorus. The last single, ‘Soothe My
Soul’ was nowhere to be seen, and a piano only accompaniment to American single
‘But Not Tonight’ was sung by Martin in one of his three solo
performances. The other two ‘The Child
Inside’ and ‘Condemnation’ (saved for the encore set) again showed that he is a
vocalist with an extraordinary voice, and surely one of the finest lyricists
that this country has ever produced.
Live versions of
remixes were also performed. The
interesting guitar intro from Gordano had much of the audience guessing that it
was the Jacques Lu Cont remix version of ‘A Pain That I’m Used To’, and another
of the five encore tracks (adding another thirty minutes to the show) was the
Goldfrapp remix of ‘Halo’. These tweaks
and changes are what keep Depeche Mode ahead of the pack. Even down to copying the synth sound from The
Saturdays’ cover of ‘Just Can’t Get Enough’ to bring it bang up to date.
‘Behind The
Wheel’, a live favourite, had crowd jumping, and one of the most perfect pop
songs of recent times, ‘Enjoy The Silence’ was absolutely sublime. ‘A Question Of Time’, ‘I Feel You’, ‘Personal
Jesus’, need I say any more? Ending with
‘Never Let Me Down Again’ and those waving arms, Depeche Mode finally left the
stage after two hours of entertainment and twenty songs.
Depeche Mode
are, without any shadow of doubt one of the hottest properties around, and with
an expected gross revenue of $200,000,000 for the tour that will continue until
March 2014, you can see why.
The Basildon
boys have done good.
Incredible.
Links
Published on Louder Than War 21/11/13 - here
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