Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Venue: Arena / Zagreb / Croatia
Concert date: February 14, 2010
Attendance: 20
Ticket price: €42.50 (floor) / €48.00 (stands)
And finally, that big moment arrived. Depeche Mode have at last come to carry out their mission in the sleek new Arena in Zagreb, a venue that fits 20,000 people under its roof. The promised show, first announced for May 22, 2009, less than a month after the release of the current studio album “Sounds Of The Universe” (2009, Mute Records) – RockLine review HERE, was a guaranteed recipe for mass euphoria, which is why tickets went like hotcakes and the show sold out in no time. Even so, we had to grit our teeth to get here. Singer Dave Gahan came down with a stomach infection, and later it turned out he was actually dealing with the early stage of a malignant form of bladder cancer. So part of the European tour got pushed from spring 2009 to late winter 2010. Valentine’s Day, the day when the birds pair up again, when the confessions of all the lovers were supposed to melt a bit of the ice and snow we’ve got plenty of this year, wasn’t exactly nailing that job at first. At 5 p.m. a few fans, totally shriveled up from the cold, were milling around at the foot of the Arena, but there was no sign of any general euphoria yet. The frost was hellish. So we evacuated to a nearby beer dive, where we squeezed in among fellow sufferers with the same goal for the day and gritted our teeth a little more. Mostly in the line for the toilet and the bar.
“Tour Of The Universe”! Showtime. The hour is right. The Arena is a brilliant idea. Parking aside, it’s a place with a “million” entrances and exits. So moving through the Arena you barely feel any crowding, even though 20,000 people are rolling in at the same time, you included. The official merchandise was literally ransacked even before Depeche Mode took the stage, despite the sky-high prices. And that’s even though they’d set up quite a few stands with the band’s official stuff in the lobby leading to the stands and the floor. Unbelievable, and yet in line with a show that had been sold out for ages.
Nitzer Ebb warmed up the crowd before Depeche Mode. The British electronic-sound masochists actually did the audience a favor with their “torture.” They’re a legendary band that came up on experimenting with electronic sounds and simple, programmed dance rhythm patterns of synthetic stomp. Way back in the early eighties. No doubt about it. That kind of emulation and largely instant repetition, over which a grating, punk-leaning vocal screams, sooner or later sends the body into a hypnotic writhe, hence the abbreviation EBM (electronic body music). And the first song nostalgically brought back the years of big ideas, inspired experimenting and the pioneering of a new avant-garde musical direction. They opened with Let Your Body Learn from the second studio album “That Total Age” (1987), released on Mute Records, which looks after the “brotherly” Depeche Mode as well as Nitzer Ebb to this day. A bizarre simplicity that once shocked with its banality while being thrillingly magnetic at the same time sounds archaic today. And the people in the hall weren’t exactly thrilled through the first 40 minutes of the evening. They took it as just another protocol act. Still, a nice experience in any case and a pretty smart choice for a warm-up. The trio of Bon Harris, Douglas McCarthy and Jason Payne released their new studio album “Industrial Complex” three weeks ago and presented it with Payroll, Once You Say and Down On Your Knees. Oddballs of bizarrely simple but pounding synthetic makeup from a bygone era, who will be even more interesting to catch live, in the more intimate atmosphere of Ljubljana’s Kino Šiška on March 4, 2010!
The floor was packed to the last corner, so I moved up to the stands. I could barely get standing room, let alone a seat. Of course, that was long before Depeche Mode started. Then, at a quarter to ten in the evening, a total blackout of the Arena announced the main act, accompanied by a euphoric roar from the masses that promised something special. The trio of Dave Gahan (vocals), Martin Gore (vocals, guitar, keyboards, backing vocals), Andy Fletcher (keyboards, backing vocals) and the touring hired hands Christian Eigner (drums) and Peter Gordeno (keyboards, backing vocals) began just as expected. Tone upon tone, they diligently laid it down. The layering of sounds came together and created the perfect ambient bed for Dave to start lazily singing the verses of In Chains. Behind them, a huge screen filled the stage across its width and reached a serious height, so the visuals really hit the desired effect, along with a moving, shifting combination of extra spotlights mounted on rigs that kept moving dynamically throughout the show! Of course, a little reserved at first, even shy, they fired up the crowd for the first time with Wrong, the single that has caught on best with the audience so far from the new album. But the first real madness hits the hall with (quite logically) Walking In My Shoes, and the place boils over with partying and interaction with the band, which, with this kind of mass vibe, gives you goosebumps like it’s nothing. The whole hall singing along, the floor especially! A sea of hands waves beneath the stands every time Gahan raises his arms or yells: “C’mmon!” The real treat was the inclusion of the phenomenal “Ultra” hit It’s No Good. The intense first part, which served up the nostalgic A Question Of Time, was closed by World In My Eyes, and then Fletch, Dave and Christian left the stage. Now it was the turn of Depeche Mode’s mastermind Martin Gore, backed by Peter Gordeno on keyboards and backing vocals, who, in an almost cabaret-style setup and visibly moved by the energy flowing from the twenty-thousand-strong crowd, led the people to the “Ultra” album with Insight and Home, then topped off a trio of calmer moments with the new song Miles Away/The Truth Is. The encore after the regular part of the show also came across as an extra treat, when the two buddies repeated such an adventure with a performance of Dressed In Black from “Black Celebration,” without the waltz-rhythm backing.
The guys delivered the big finale just as expected, with big hits that are a one-of-a-kind catapult in themselves, fusing firmly erotic, seductive rhythms, punchy synthesizer sampling dictates and Gore’s guitar sounds, which he coaxed from his collection of priciest guitars, and the lead motifs that Never Let Me Down Again, Enjoy The Silence and I Feel You are famous for. Gore spent most of the time in the role of guitarist again. He moved to his plate of synthesizers for the first time only during World In My Eyes and later during Policy Of Truth.
The closing part warmed the crowd up all the way, and the waving of hands in the packed hall looked downright magical. At times the intensity was magical, hypnotic, cerebral. With the excellent sound Depeche Mode delivered, the effect of the songs was complemented and upgraded by visuals playing with the shifting colors of the stage lighting, and Dave added some fuel to the fire by dancing, using an extra “bridge” to walk several times along the left side into the very heart of the floor, which was packed with the wildest fans in the “fan pit.”
In the encore, too, Depeche Mode didn’t miss their stage mission by a millimeter. Stripped, which the guys opened by throwing in the lead synth motif of the outro first, before the pattern of the engine humming in a waiting car and the blinking wipers kicked in, which defines the basic character of this beloved classic. The songs with Gahan on vocals mostly followed the look of the studio originals, but the guys also added special sound effects, especially in the intros and outros of the songs, and so kept the atmosphere at an absolute peak for over an hour and 45 minutes, as much as you can conjure up in the conditions the Arena’s ambience allows. The dark but catchy Behind the Wheel was, as expected, followed as the closing song of the night by Personal Jesus, where Depeche Mode, thanks to Gore’s almost distorted guitar, treated themselves to the most rock noise of the night. They stretched the song out in its outro and pulled extra atoms of energy out of the audience, in an already maxed-out, boiling cauldron of a hall.
Depeche Mode in their new (and old) form remain a one-of-a-kind live adventure that manages to squeeze the maximum out of the ticket price. The sound, the lighting and extra visual effects, the evergreen hits, a Dave Gahan in great spirits who kept spinning around the stage like a top, especially whenever he grabbed the mic stand, all persist and defy time, gaining a unique sentiment, expressive power and the recognizable charisma, the singular genius of this band. Anyone who missed this chance to party with them in Zagreb’s Arena made a truly huge mistake.
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist
NITZER EBB: 1.Let your Body Learn 2.Shame 3.Once you say 4.Hearts and Minds 5.Lightning man 6.Hit you back 7.Payroll 8.Down On your Knees 9.Control I’m here 10.I give to you DEPECHE MODE: 1.In Chains 2.Wrong 3.Hole to Feed 4.Walking in My Shoes 5.It’s No Good 6.A Question of Time 7.Precious 8.World In My Eyes 9.Insight 10.Home 11.Miles Away/The Truth Is 12.Policy of Truth 13.In Your Room 14.I Feel You 15.Enjoy the Silence 16.Never Let Me Down Again —encore— 17.Dressed In Black 18.Stripped 19.Behind the Wheel 20.Personal Jesus
Photo gallery
