I wasn’t kind to Depeche Mode who came to the San Siro last summer. A lot of craftsmanship, many finds already heard on previous tours. The fear of witnessing something already seen was also there last night at the Assago Forum. But Dave Gahan and Martin Gore made us think again with a concert which, despite having a setlist, stage and visuals very similar to those of outdoor shows, found its ideal dimension in a more intimate space.
Given the enormous success of the band, which seems far from destined to wane, it is understandable that they want to play in stadiums, but a more intimate dimension (if a Forum full as an egg can be defined as intimate) allows you to capture a lot of nuances that had been lost at San Siro. You see Dave Gahan, you listen to him and you appreciate him in any situation: he is born to be a frontman and he would do it well even at Circo Massimo. But to remember how soulful Martin Gore’s choirs are or to pine when his blues guitar intertwines with the piano of In Your Room you need good acoustics and, far be it from me to talk like an audiophile, yesterday the one at the Forum was very good.
The two founders then do their part, in very good shape from every point of view, driving a four-piece formation that also includes the multi-instrumentalist Peter Gordeno and the drummer Christian Eigner, who it would be right to always mention, given that they play live with the band for 26 years now. Finally the most important ingredient: the pieces. Without neglecting those of the last one Memento Morithe most used in the lineup together with the masterpiece ViolatorDepeche Mode can count on songs that everyone knows, everyone sings and everyone loves, classics from a career that began 43 years ago.
So: relatively intimate dimension, band in very good shape and great pieces one after the other. What can go wrong? And in fact everything is fine. In front then there is Dave Gahan, the greatest frontman that a techno pop band has had, the true rock element in Depeche Mode’s live version, much more than Martin Gore’s guitar who, please don’t accuse me of treason, often It’s not clear what sounds it produces. The great merit of Depeche Mode live is that of having brought rock into techno pop (or vice versa). After all, as Jim Reid of the Jesus and Mary Chain recently reminded us, rock’n’roll is not just guitars. Martin Gore, for his part, as usual thrilled with voice-piano versions of two pieces from the repertoire: yesterday it was the turn of Home And Strangelove, during which, if we were not victims of a hallucination, the recorded voice of Gahan, who in the meantime had come down from the stage, was also heard. This is to say that, as always in Depeche Mode concerts, not all the sounds are “live”.
And as the pieces followed one another, accompanied by Anton Corbijn’s visuals (less evocative than the past and more linked to the shooting of live images) it was inevitable to think about how well songs like Stripped, who has 38 years under his belt. Thirty-eight years before its release (1986, the year of Black Celebration) it was 1948 and the Constitution had recently come into force in Italy. Banal and very boomerian considerations, but it really is a piece that could be released today, unlike much of contemporary pop. The only moment that sounds a bit like a revival, the only one that seems put in the lineup as pure divertissement is perhaps Just Can’t Get Enoughat the end of which Dave Gahan plays a bit of games with the audience and then exclaims, ambasciator non porta pena: «So much better than Turin!», where Depeche performed last Saturday.
The singer also finds time to quote Riders on the Storm of the Doors (“Kraftwerk with Jim Morrison” was summed up by someone when describing Depeche Mode at the time when Martin Gore, Andy Fletcher and Alan Wilder were motionless behind the keyboards) immediately toning it down with the incipit of I Will Survive. In short, there is also a way to have fun, even if many continue to maintain that Memento Mori it means that we must remember that the inevitable awaits us, while Martin Gore specified that it is an exhortation to enjoy life.
“See the stars they’re shining bright, everything’s alright tonight”. The words of Never Let Me Down Again, sung above the usual ocean of arms, were the perfect summary of the evening, even if the stars were not visible. And the closing with Personal Jesus, recorded a few kilometers from the Forum, at the Logic Studios in via Quintiliano, an involuntary act of love by the band for the city that will host them again tomorrow night. Tickets are sold out, but we saw a fair number of touts near the Forum. Beg, steal or borrow, say the British. In short, it’s worth being there.
