Surely melancholy has never felt as a good as it did at the end of Depeche Mode‘s main set at the Kia Forum on Tuesday.
Picture this: 17,000 fans singing along to “Enjoy the Silence,” singer Dave Gahan stepping back from the microphone as the crowd carried its chorus – “All I ever wanted / All I ever needed is here in my arms” – over Martin Gore‘s signature guitar riff.
Those are the moments of which memories are made, and as Depeche Mode returned to Southern California for the first time in five years, there were many more scattered across a set of 23 songs over two hours.
The English electronic band, icons of New Wave and post-punk rock, is down to a duo of Gahan and Gore now. Co-founder keyboardist Andrew Fletcher died last year, giving the title of the new album “Momento Mori” – a reminder of the inevitability of death – an emotional heft.
Which is not to say Tuesday’s show was anything but joyful. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees have long considered the darker anxieties of life and love, sex and religion, and in confronting them found pathways to the light.
The show opened with a pair of songs from the new record. “My Cosmos is Mine” used a slow industrial hiss-and-clang rhythm to establish a mood for the night. “Wagging Tongues,” one of the catchiest melodies of the new tunes, placed Gahan in the spotlight at center stage, dancing and singing as Gore added harmonies from his keyboards at stage right.
A song or two later, “It’s No Good,” a single off the 1997 album “Ultra,” drew the first big response of the night at its opening notes, its throbbing synths, bass and drums – drummer Christian Eigner and keyboardist Peter Gordeno are back again as touring musicians – accompanied by crisp video images of … donkeys on some foreign beach? (Checks notes, yes, donkeys on the beach.)
Other highlights of the first half of the show included “Sister of Night,” a slow, moody squall of synths, the…
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