Fifteen minutes before the start, the grassy area of the airport in Prague’s Letňany is wet with heavy rain. Where metal plates are not laid, muddy areas slowly expand. And there are more as the crowd rushes to the stage. The frequency of puddles is not surprising – the English band Depeche Mode will soon play their biggest Prague, and therefore also Czech, concert here for approximately 60,000 people.
She first performed in the metropolis in 1988, since then she has performed here twelve times, including this Sunday. They will return again next year, performing in the Vysočany O2 arena on February 22 and 24.
The opening downpour, which briefly turned the mostly black-clad audience into colorful islands of raincoats, finally stopped before the opening track had even played My Cosmos Is Mine. She also opens the current record called Memento Mori.
The moment when the departing black clouds let the setting sun shine for the last time that day, figuratively describes the nature of Depeche Mode’s work – although their songs often talk about abandonment, addictions, human weaknesses and darkness, they also contain a hint of hope, as the main author Martin said in an interview years ago Gore.
All of these themes fit well with the focus of Depeche Mode’s career. In the 80s and 90s of the last century, the melancholy of the post-punk genre responded to the sadness and strong experiences of gothic rock, as well as the 90s drug rush. Unlike many of their peers, they used synthesizers instead of guitars, integrated their sound into the mainstream and contributed to the creation of the synthpop genre.
Although My Cosmos Is Mine has an ominously creeping sound, the lyrics work with the image of one’s own sanctuary, a space where no one can interfere, where one can hide from the cruelties of the world.
Singer David Gahan sympathetically refrained from the obsequious gestures typical of rock greats. | Photo: Lukáš Bíba
On the large screens, where the director later works with frenetic cuts and exaggerated color saturation, until the musicians look like reddish shadows, white strokes increase with each phrase. They gradually form the letter M, which also appears in the middle of the stage as practically the only stage prop. At the same time, it also serves as a screen, where, however, the scenes appear in the symmetry of its shape, as if in it during the composition Everything Counts dancing hands in white gloves.
The outline of the M also seems to describe the current situation of Depeche Mode – after the death of long-time member Andy Fletcher last year, two strong personalities remained in the band, singer David Gahan and Martin Gore alternating between keyboards and guitar. Those without a bolt in the form of a third member found their way during the recording of the March record Memento Mori, or Remember Death. They finally play five songs from it in Letňany. The material was already created during the covid-19 pandemic, but the tone cannot be separated from Fletcher’s death.
Reconciliation is primarily offered as a single Ghosts Again, which is also one of the highlights of the Prague concert. The last remnants of daylight disappear when this composition, in which the joy of life is combined with the grief of lost loved ones, is heard in the – compared to the studio version, which is slightly louder – bass bubbling. It ends with a cut reminiscent of the sudden end of life.
At the concert, where Gahan and Gore are accompanied by drummer Christian Eigner and multi-instrumentalist Peter Gordeno, a photo of him gradually changing during the song will also appear as a memory of Fletcher World in My Eyes.
Of course, such moments belong to the lot of bands that have been active on the scene for a long time, Depeche Mode with their now forty-three-year career not excepted. From a cursory glance, the Prague audience consists mainly of people who grew up with them. In a way, the group managed to remain present – on the penultimate album Spirit from 2017, they commented on the political turmoil concentrated in the person of the then US President Donald Trump, as well as on the climate crisis.
Never Let Me Down Again, as performed by Depeche Mode in Prague this Sunday. Photo: Lukáš Bíba | Video: Mike Koukal
Her composition again this year Never Let Me Down Again from the old album Music for the Masses was featured in HBO’s post-apocalyptic series The Last of Us, which almost tripled its viewership on streaming services overnight.
The band almost closes the concert with it, playing it right before their biggest hit and the last song of the night Personal Jesus. Despite the release year of 1987, Never Let Me Down Again can also appeal to younger people – the desire for a mental escape from an unfavorable reality with a more or less burdensome outlook is quite easily connected to the dialogue of synthesizers with the piano and the appealing voice that David Gahan dominates throughout the concert .
Outside of his parties, the singer regularly spins in pirouettes, on the contrary, he refrains from the obsequious gestures typical of rock giants. Even with this moderation, Depeche Mode seems fresh, one is not embarrassed to observe someone who is obviously not fighting his age. In addition, the electronic sound of the group is much more in line with the world surrounded by machines.
Listening to, and thus attending, a Depeche Mode concert today undoubtedly does not mean the same thing as it did thirty years ago. Their combination of essentially human experiences of the modern age with the sounds of emerging computer technology no longer seems radical in the pop context, and the full summer schedule only confirms this. Instead, Depeche Mode, with all their experience, offer reconciliation amid the humming machine age.
The band returns with a song for encores Waiting for the Nightan unexpected climax where David Gahan sings, among other things, “I’m waiting for the night to fall when everything is bearable, and in that silence all you feel is peace.”
Then, when the last notes of Personal Jesus fade away and a person gradually detaches himself from the flow of visitors until he ends up alone for a moment, he can also find such a moment in himself thanks to what he has seen and heard.
2023-07-31 10:03:35
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