Still Gahan Strong
[NME, 22nd September 2001. Words: Stephen Dalton. Picture: Uncredited.]
In this anniversary year, the class of '81 have mostly taken comfort in tradition. But while U2 and New Order fall back on guitars and greatest hits, the other graduates of that 50 million-plus sales, post punk super league are still pushing forward, still selling out arenas in minutes, and still underrated in their homeland. Too old for Radio 1, too weird for Radio 2, Depeche Mode remain the biggest cult band in Britain.
But does that make them any good? Try asking the 20,000 Germanic street screechers who throng this former Hitler Youth amphitheatre on the first of two sell out Berlin dates. The atmosphere is beyond hysterical long before the band arrive for a two hour marathon.
It's heavy on the new 'Exciter' album, with virtually no '80s Mode and barely half a dozen singles - but still everybody screams every word. In this age of bewildering consumer choice, Depeche have cracked pop's holy grail, band loyalty.
For most of the '90s, the Mode were divided by drugs, egos and internal friction. On their 1998 tour they seemed fragile, depleted, uneven. This time they rock like a Panzer division. Right from the glam stomp of "Dead Of Night", Dave Gahan is on killer form - a slicked back, duck-walking, cool suited rock'n'roller, shagging his mic stand and high kicking the night air. Meanwhile Martin Gore, rock's campest heterosexual, wearing the single wing and snow white bondage trousers of a fallen angel, joins Dave in frequent bouts of back to back arse dancing.
With just the slightest mid set lull, the pacing is near perfect, Depeche can still pound out thunderdome metal bashers like "I Feel You" and "Personal Jesus", or Wagnerian disco behemoths like 'Enjoy The Silence'. But a newly crafted subtlety and Gahan's enriched voice also allow room for twinklers like "When The Body Speaks" and "Freelove".
Whatever their internal tensions, the Mode seem at their most coherent and in sync for a decade. They've finessed the gulf between Gahan's comical rock star histrionics and the other two's more restrained Euro cool detachment into some kind of revved-up, sky punching, dynamic whole.
Crashing from anthemic peak to anthemic peak, Depeche Mode are a national institution with an international cult following. In an era of lacklustre megashows and bad superstars, respect is due.
[NME, 22nd September 2001. Words: Stephen Dalton. Picture: Uncredited.]
In this anniversary year, the class of '81 have mostly taken comfort in tradition. But while U2 and New Order fall back on guitars and greatest hits, the other graduates of that 50 million-plus sales, post punk super league are still pushing forward, still selling out arenas in minutes, and still underrated in their homeland. Too old for Radio 1, too weird for Radio 2, Depeche Mode remain the biggest cult band in Britain.
But does that make them any good? Try asking the 20,000 Germanic street screechers who throng this former Hitler Youth amphitheatre on the first of two sell out Berlin dates. The atmosphere is beyond hysterical long before the band arrive for a two hour marathon.
It's heavy on the new 'Exciter' album, with virtually no '80s Mode and barely half a dozen singles - but still everybody screams every word. In this age of bewildering consumer choice, Depeche have cracked pop's holy grail, band loyalty.
For most of the '90s, the Mode were divided by drugs, egos and internal friction. On their 1998 tour they seemed fragile, depleted, uneven. This time they rock like a Panzer division. Right from the glam stomp of "Dead Of Night", Dave Gahan is on killer form - a slicked back, duck-walking, cool suited rock'n'roller, shagging his mic stand and high kicking the night air. Meanwhile Martin Gore, rock's campest heterosexual, wearing the single wing and snow white bondage trousers of a fallen angel, joins Dave in frequent bouts of back to back arse dancing.
With just the slightest mid set lull, the pacing is near perfect, Depeche can still pound out thunderdome metal bashers like "I Feel You" and "Personal Jesus", or Wagnerian disco behemoths like 'Enjoy The Silence'. But a newly crafted subtlety and Gahan's enriched voice also allow room for twinklers like "When The Body Speaks" and "Freelove".
Whatever their internal tensions, the Mode seem at their most coherent and in sync for a decade. They've finessed the gulf between Gahan's comical rock star histrionics and the other two's more restrained Euro cool detachment into some kind of revved-up, sky punching, dynamic whole.
Crashing from anthemic peak to anthemic peak, Depeche Mode are a national institution with an international cult following. In an era of lacklustre megashows and bad superstars, respect is due.