After the passing of founding member Andy Fletcher last year, it would have been totally understandable if Depeche Mode had decided to call it quits. Instead, Martin Gore and Dave Gahan have rallied, released an excellent album in Momento Mori and, judging by the scale of the show they put on at Twickenham on June 17, are determined to enhance their reputation as one of the very best stadium acts on the planet.
First though, Scottish indie-soul collective Young Fathers have the rather thankless task of warming up a partisan crowd. They’re an odd booking for a DM crowd, and their hip-hop-meets-art pop-meets-afrobeat mash up definitely confuses some aging goths. But with a no fucks given attitude and a bunch of songs from this year's superb Heavy Heavy album in their back pocket, they’re certainly memorable, even if they didn't ever have a snowball's chance in hell of upstaging the headliners.
As soon as Dave Gahan and Martin Gore walk onstage, backed by longtime touring members drummer Christian Eigner and keyboardist Peter Gordino, Twickenham is in the palm of their hands. Depeche Mode open with a pair of songs from the new album, My Cosmos is Mine and Wagging Tongue, both of which sound monolithic, but it’s when the evergreen Walking in My Shoes kicks in that everything is taken up a notch. It’s initially a fairly stripped-down stage show, and 3 of the members onstage are quite innocuous presences, but luckily for everyone, the fourth element is Dave Gahan.
