A Black Celebration in Dark Times Depeche Mode Live at the Crypto.com Arena

Few bands can do four nights in one week at playing fifteen thousand seat indoor arenas in the great city of Los Angeles. Even fewer that can do that come from the counterculture recesses of early ‘80s goth music and the darker side of new wave. Yes, Depeche Mode are smack in the middle of doing just that. Tonight being the third of four massive arena shows in L.A. between 12/10 and 12/17, the first two of which having taken place at the famed Kia Forum, tonight and Sunday being at the Crypto.com Arena (previously The STAPLES Center). And oh yeah, this was after another night at the Kia Forum back on March 28 earlier this year. How can this venerable English synth pop band command the audience attention and fandom that usually only today’s mega pop stars of superstar levels of celebrity can, and this all without any real radio airplay or mainstream exposure? The answer hides truly in the meat of the affair: a genius level skill at the real bread and butter of the music industry: unforgettable songs.

Minus a few missteps, it was a night filled with aces. One of the evening’s few perhaps incorrect choices was starting the set with the two opening tracks from their latest album Memento Mori, “My Cosmos is Mine” and “Wagging Tongue” respectively. Each song has some of the more sultry tones the band has always been famous for and it’s not that they’re bad songs, but these two in particular have a more ominous and patient tone. It’s not the kick you in the stomach and declare how you’re ready to pry victory from the jaws of death beginning one might hope for. Those first few minutes can be crucial to creating the atmosphere that can propel the audience through two hours of music, keeping them engaged. This opening was a little more of a stutter step, but nearly everything from there delivered powerfully.

A trio of essential cuts followed immediately after with “Walking in My Shoes” from their classic early ‘90s album Songs of Faith and Devotion (fun fact that is stunning, this song is now over THIRTY years old), “It’s No Good” from Ultra and “Policy of Truth” coming of their giant success album Violator. “It’s No Good” reverberated just as you would want it to with lead singer Dave Gahan’s rich baritone intonation of “Don’t say you want me / Don’t say you need me / Don’t say you love me / It’s understood,” an instantly memorable melodic refrain. The gears shifted again for lesser known song “In Your Room” and then again for early career mega pop number “Everything Counts” going all the way back to the summer of 1983.

It may not feel like it, but 2005’s wonderful Playing the Angel is nearing twenty years old which is noteworthy because next song “Precious” with it’s soothing keyboard stabs from the band’s primary songwriter Martin Gore feels like a recent hit compared to their legion of famous songs. “Speak to Me” off the latest album followed before a nice change of pace in the show. Gahan left the stage and allowed Gore to take center stage as lead singer for a pair of stripped back songs, “A Question of Lust” from their early era album Black Celebration and “Heaven” from Delta Machine being played (and acoustic) for the first time since 2014. Later after Gahan’s return to the stage the momentum kicked into overdrive, packing in stellar song after stellar song starting with the ‘50s blues-esque guitar lick based “I Feel You,” one of the first songs of the night that Gahan really let the crowd belt the chorus, “This is the morning of our love / It’s just the dawning of our love.” It’s indicative of how resonant Gahan’s voice is that the audience is just gripping, ready to howl along with him.

Touchingly, the band played another seminal Violator cut “World in My Eyes” which served as a heartfelt tribute to recently deceased bandmate Andy Fletcher (Fletcher had passed away sadly in May of 2022 due to an aortic dissection, tear in the heart’s aorta). An image of Fletcher both with and without glasses was put on the video wall that spanned the entire height of the stage as Gahan and Gore sang, “Let me show you the world in my eyes.” The title track from Black Celebration brought the beginning of the finale together, the band taking the song’s danceable synth patterns as the bedrock for joyous movement calling upon the capacity crowd to sing along to the song’s refrained of “Black celebration / tonight.” They kept that inertia accelerating playing another cut from the same album “Stripped,” itself dripping with the sinister sexual charisma they made famous in the mid ‘80s with Gahan emoting, “Let me see you stripped / down to the bone.” The more driving “John the Revelator” set the stage for the obvious set closer, “Enjoy the Silence.”

“Enjoy the Silence” encompasses nearly everything about the band that makes them great. It has a bounding synth melody line, glowing tones, a simple but unforgettable guitar melody and Gahan’s trademark vocal lines indicating yearning, oceanic atmosphere and romance simultaneously. The crowd could not be stopped from participating here, taking the lead for the song’s lush chorus, “All I ever wanted / All I ever needed / is here, in my arms / Words are very, unnecessary / Pain can only do harm.” This led to the encore break. The band returned with Gahan and Gore front and center on the catwalk for a stripped down duet version of “Waiting for the Night.” They warmly embraced at the song’s conclusion with a big hug. They went for the poppiest of the pop hits after that, dropping their 1981 hit “Just Can’t Get Enough” from the album Speak & Spell. It’s old school and super saccharine for sure, but it’s still massive fun. What might seem a throwaway harmony melody near the song’s last measures of “Ohhhhhhh oh” became an anthemic singalong. You had to see it to believe it as Gahan spent several minutes just raising his arms to the sky slowly to herald the audience to sing that melody themselves long after the song was truly done.

One of their biggest hits “Never Let Me Down” with it’s confident up-tempo approach started to bring everything to a close when a ruckus right near the catwalk caused Gahan to call the band to stop playing completely. It was hard to see at a distance, but something like ten members of the venue’s security seemed to be frantically doing something near or by a fan. Whether they were attempting to eject a fan or a fan was causing a disturbance it’s hard to say, but Gahan was having none of it. “Nothing is that important,” he bellowed to them. After a moment of trying to calm things down and inquiring what was going on he stated to the audience, “He’s lost his fucking phone,” which elicited a chorus of boos. He calmly defused the situation adding, “There’s enough shit in the world without you guys,” an obvious take on the incredibly turbulent current state of the world. He asked the crowd members at the center of whatever was going on, “Are you going to be cool?” and then brought the band to start up the song again to a giant cheer. About as classy a way of handling a situation like that as there could be. They ended off after that playing what might feel decently obvious, “Personal Jesus,” the night’s fifth song from Violator. (Which certainly tells you how classic an album it is, begging that many songs to be played from a band with fifteen studio albums under their belt.) It’s driving almost Western style guitar riff melded with industrial music style samples and Gahan’s legendary call of “Reach out and touch faith.”

It’s an enviable position to be Depeche Mode, to have amassed a canon brimming over with so many sterling ideas. Each element feels aimed perfectly at what it needs to make the song memorable, more so than they were trying to just fill out a genre. The rewards are obvious, as being this successful without all the trappings that most bands require for immense success is usually practically impossible. This is one of those rare moments, where a band has played the game all on their own terms allowing the fundamentals to carry them to unparalleled success.

Setlist

1. My Cosmos Is Mine
2. Wagging Tongue
3. Walking in My Shoes
4. It’s No Good
5. Policy of Truth
6. In Your Room
7. Everything Counts
8. Precious
9. Speak to Me
10. A Question of Lust
11. Heaven
12. Ghosts Again
13. I Feel You
14. A Pain That I’m Used To
15. World in My Eyes
16. Black Celebration
17. Stripped
18. John the Revelator
19. Enjoy the Silence

Encore:

1. Waiting for the Night
2. Just Can’t Get Enough
3. Never Let Me Down Again
4. Personal Jesus

File photo by Owen Ela