Live Review

Depeche Mode – O2 Arena

• 22nd Feb 2010

It isn’t often you get to go review one of your favourite bands twice in almost as many months. The nice thing about this is that although you are seeing a very similar show from before – you can tell whether you were being too biased, or whether the first show on the first hand was an apt demonstration of a bands power.

It’s a joy then to report that even from the high up seating of the O2 Arena that Depeche Mode are indeed no fluke! In fact if anything this show had an even better vibe about it. The interesting thing about seeing the same show is very much like watching a film for the second time – you start to spot little things you didn’t the first time – You spot the repetition used by the performers – and not just the fact that they pretty much stick to the same set list and the order in which they play – But also the timing in which they do certain things. Gahan waits a few songs in before he struts on the empty catwalk protruding out of the stage. His clothes seem to shed at the same points during the show as well. He also seems to have engineered his applauding of the drummer at certain points as well as giving it up for Martin L Gore.

Listing things like this may seem like it’s all manufactured and unreal – but it’s sometimes probably more a case of common sense for a leading man to give his hand out to the rest of the band for the crowd to enjoy. The fact that these are pre-determined moments doesn’t really seem to effect the show at all as there is nothing short of energy, vigour and enthusiasm in Gahan’s performance. And it is after all a Performance we are here to see – not method acting. And this is all the sort of thing that only returning crowd members stuck up in the seating are bound to notice.

So the after Nitzer Ebb left the stage Depeche mode came on surprising early to the opening “in Chains” number from their new album – followed up by “Wrong” which was the first single. A lot of new numbers are played throughout the night and they blend easily enough with older tracks – it works seamlessly thanks to “Sounds of the Universe” being such a triumph of a record. They go into older territory as far back as A Question of Time (A Question of Lust is visited at the start of the encore).

Enthusiasts in the crowd are screaming out for Enjoy the Silence, World in My Eyes, I Feel You, Stripped and Never Let Me Down Again. And they get them all! But not before Walking In My Shoes, World In My Eyes and Precious.
Around the mid point Gore takes over for a few quiet numbers – reaching a euphoric high with Home that the crowd applaud to. When Gahan gets back onstage he wastes no time in making fun out of the “Essex” football-esque crowd still chanting lyrics at the stage. But all in good fun – they continue and Gahan gets jiggy with his sex move, microphone twirling and arm waving that the crowd duly respond to.

And how do they send us off at the end of their on core – to a slowly introduced, powerhouse rendition of Personal Jesus.

So if you are essentially going to that same show twice does is it still worth it – if you love the band – It is totally worth it.