Depeche Mode’s sell-out gig at the Phones4u Arena was a confident spectacle of how mass scale synth pop should be done.
This was the electro-rock group’s fourth visit to the 21,000 capacity stadium to promote their 13th and latest album Delta Machine, which has already topped the charts in more than 12 countries this year.
Front man Dave Gahan led the stage with a convinced parade of contorted microphone-grinds, slow stripping and sassy hip-twisting.
For the most part Gahan’s stage presence was compelling, but at times it felt linear and contrived and undermined the creativity that had conceived songs like Barrel of a Gun, Precious and Heaven.
But there were some incredible moments. Gahan’s voice tumbled playfully over the textures mapped out by Christian Eigner’s drumming in Policy of Truth only to bathe along the synths in Should be Higher immediately afterwards.
Martin Gore wound things down mid-set by bearing all in an agonised three-song solo, where he whispered The Child in Me and Not Tonight over an enchanted audience who plucked the words from the air, considered them briefly and soothingly whispered them back.
The finale had more than 10,000 people swaying and singing to the sentiments of Never Let Me Down Again right up until the final chord.
Lucky gig goers didn’t feel like they were witnessing Depeche Mode but as if they were a part of Depeche Mode itself.
Image courtesy of EMI Records via YouTube, with thanks
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