Concert Review: Depeche Mode Draw On Slick, Seductive Beats At Superpages.com Center
Source: By Mario Tarradell ~
In keeping with the darkly danceable sonic personality of their current album, ‘Sounds Of The Universe’, the members of Depeche Mode made sure to color the older songs accordingly during their 2-hour concert Saturday night at Superpages.com Center.
Mode mainstays Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher employed two extra musicians, a drummer and second keyboardist, for a riveting performance that forcefully emphasized beats and rhythms. The show before 15,000 fans packed bare-knuckle punches – pounding drums, vibrating grooves and Gahan’s deep, potent voice.
The lead singer was in his usually slithering, seductive form. This guy’s the most sinewy frontman this side of Mick Jagger. It’s amazing he had so much energy given that he had surgery to remove a malignant bladder tumor in May.
Opening with three back-to-back tracks from Universe was a bold move. New music never tends to play well at concerts. But ‘In Chains’, ‘Wrong’ and ‘Hole To Feed’ were ferocious. By the time we got ‘Walking In My Shoes’, ‘It’s No Good’, ‘A Question Of Time’ and ‘Precious’, Gahan was unstoppable.
A couple of cuts from 1986’s foreboding Black Celebration, ‘Fly On the Windscreen’ and ‘Stripped’, added even more edge to the proceedings. And of course, the Violator tunes – ‘Enjoy the Silence’, ‘Policy of Truth’ and ‘Personal Jesus’ – caused sheer pandemonium with the audience.
Yet perhaps what’s most impressive about Depeche Mode is perseverance and productivity. Here’s a band more than two decades strong that never seems to get old artistically. While they started as synthesized pop lads from England, they matured into electronic rockers with the credibility that ensues.
Reinvention is key, but so is reinforcement. The Mode men have mastered both.
Source: The Dallas Morning News
