2024-03-04 02:12:05
A yellowed human skull studded with diamonds shines on the big screen. The black inscription “enjoy” inscribed on the forehead anticipates the expected hit. Then, when the song Enjoy the Silence plays and the skull slowly starts to turn, at one point only “joy” remains from the inscription. At that moment, she completely permeates the sold-out Prague O2 arena, singing in unison with Dave Gahan.
No less strong was the opening of Thursday’s concert by the British band Depeche Mode, which was watched by 15,000 people. It is repeated again this Saturday in the largest covered hall here.
After an abstract prelude made up of surfaces of neural synthesizers, 61-year-old frontman Dave Gahan comes on stage. “Don’t mess with my world, don’t mess with my mind / Don’t challenge my space-time, my cosmos is mine,” he begins to sing.
Last year’s song called My Cosmos Is Mine defines the space right from the start of the show. Heavy drum beats and synthesizers slowly push the dense song forward. Time is echoed by the sound of a digital hiss, reminiscent of a jet of compressed steam or metal running over sandpaper. The whole thing acts as a darkened gateway to a world of melancholy, in which attention turns to the human interior and emotions are experienced more clearly. Reality remains behind the walls of the hall.
Only four characters stand on the stage. In addition to singer Gahan and guitarist and keyboardist Martin Gore, they are multi-instrumentalist Peter Gordeno and drummer Christian Eigner. With a minimum of resources, they fill a generous space with an almost tangible sound. Sometimes he can be austere, but he always cuts into the bodies of the listeners, almost exclusively dressed in tricks and sweatshirts with the band’s logo. She can get by without preludes or big gestures all evening. He can rely on the power of songs from a career spanning more than forty years.
Dark music for the masses
Last June, Depeche Mode played their biggest Czech concert to date, when they performed the title of their long-ago album Music for Masses in front of 60,000 people in Prague’s Letňany. The crowd was drenched in rain, but the band played most of the show under the setting sun. As magical as dusk can be, black Depeche Mode suits it best.
In Prague, Dave Gahan sang in places as if it should be the last time. | Photo: Lukáš Bíba
The pair of current evenings at the O2 arena promised a tighter and more intense experience. Depeche Mode absolutely fulfilled the expectations. Excitement reigned in the audience, for example, during the third song Walking in My Shoes.
Martin Gore casually places his black-nailed fingers on the strings of a pistachio-colored Gretch guitar. But behind the scenes of the song about forgiveness, everything glows red. Dave Gahan makes gestures reminiscent of a hungry Dracula, instead of sucking up the blood, he spits it out in his baritone voice to everyone present. The tension rises, heavy guitar surfaces roll over the imaginary surface formed by the heads of the crowd. Gore’s minimalistic solo at the end of the song sounds like an undertuned siren warning of missile strikes. The aisles dance in a daze.
Better than Berlin
Some songs on the projection screen are accompanied by videos instead of footage from the stage. Everything Counts from 1983 is conducted by a mime in a black costume and white gloves. At other times, the canvas shows donkeys running on the beach, later the silhouette of a man plunges into the turbulent waves of the ocean, which break into a kaleidoscope.
Depeche Mode confidently oscillate between rock and the synthpop genre they helped define in the 1980s. The dramaturgical contrast is formed by Martin Gore’s solo band. The sixty-two-year-old author of most of the repertoire takes on the role of frontman, the others go backstage. Accompanied only by the piano, Gore then sings the hit Strangelove from 1987, which he follows in a chamber arrangement with the ballad Somebody.
“You are much better than the audience in Berlin,” said Dave Gahan in Prague. | Photo: Lukáš Bíba
When the band returns, they perform the melodic novelty Ghost Again. The lighthearted atmosphere is cut by the heavy I Feel You. Gahan lays the words over the rolling beat like it’s going to be the last time.
Behind The Wheel, dedicated to keyboardist Andrew Fletcher, who died the year before last at the age of 60, gets a big round of applause. It was supposed to be his most popular piece from the repertoire.
“You’re way better than the crowd in Berlin,” Gahan pays tribute to Prague at the end of the encore Just Can’t Get Enough, before 1990’s Personal Jesus comes on as a whirlwind of relentless guitar riffs.
The melody repeats over and over, the other instruments gradate under the guitar mantra. It’s an ecstatic finale that the whole hall knew was coming, and yet it hits the audience with all its might. Depeche Mode’s performance in Prague is exceptional not only because of the excellent form of the musicians.
The song Enjoy the Silence was played at the end of the main part of the Prague concert. Photo: Lukáš Bíba | Video: Milan Soukup
Back to Charles Bridge
Towards the end of Everything Counts, Dave Gahan invites a female fan on stage to dance. This only happens sporadically at Depeche Mode concerts. Although the singer did something similar two weeks ago in Dublin, Ireland, he otherwise keeps his distance. The extraordinary moment proves that Depeche Mode arrived in the Czech Republic in a good mood. And they have a reason for it.
The two Prague stops of the Memento Mori world tour deviate from the norm mainly thanks to accompanying events organized by fans on their own initiative.
Already on Friday, the Futurum club in Smíchov hosts a so-called warm up party, i.e. a warm-up party before the second concert on Saturday in the O2 arena. After it ends, about a thousand of the most devoted go to the Roxy club. According to the organizer Filip Macháček, both evenings will be sold out, there are only a few tickets left for the Roxy.
The event collectively called Prague Depeche Mode Weekender also includes a joint photo shoot. Hundreds of fans will gather on Saturday afternoon at Křižovnické náměstí to immortalize themselves on the adjacent Charles Bridge. It was there that the members of Depeche Mode famously performed in the fall of 1988 took a picture Anton Corbijn. The images were then published in the collection Strangers.
The unusual fan enthusiasm proves the enduring popularity of Depeche Mode, founded in 1980. They come from a time when music trends were not yet determined by TikTok videos, only to be swept away by other several-second sequences. It was necessary to pursue music, connect to a network of like-minded people and make an effort.
The creation of Depeche Mode is a complex experience for fans experienced within the community.
A time when music carried a physical imprint was recalled by fridge magnet and poster sellers outside the O2 Arena on Thursday. Improvised stands with souvenirs printed with home-made graphics are not common here.
Depeche Mode ended Thursday’s concert in Prague with the song Personal Jesus. Photo: Lukáš Bíba | Video: Martin Dybala
The rebirth of a personal Jesus
One of the motifs of the Memento Mori tour is the skull. It can be a reminder of the transience of life as well as a memory of late bandmate Fletcher, whose passing ushered the band into a new phase.
Dave Gahan and Martin Gore are thousands of kilometers apart in civilian life, each living on opposite coasts of the US.
In Prague, they dance around each other, hug each other. At the same time, their relationship was somewhat complicated for many years, and Fletcher acted as a diplomat between the two egos.
After his death, the musicians considered whether it would not be better to enjoy the silence forever. However, after a short phone call, they assured each other that Depeche Mode would continue, and during work on last year’s Memento Mori album, they found a new way to each other.
In a certain sense, the O2 arena watched the rebirth of the band, which for most of those present really represents that personal Jesus from their famous hit. A close entity that is within reach whenever needed. None of the participants of Thursday’s concert would have enjoyed the silence of Depeche Mode.