Article originally published in Counter Arts on Medium on July 31, 2023.
Sometimes life experiences are so amazing, that you can’t pack them easily in stories. You can only let them breathe in concepts: love, joy, a community of spirit, great vibes. Depeche Mode’s concert in Bucharest on July 23, 2023 was all that and more, because it was also dedicated, in a way, to Andy Fletcher, who died in May last year, and the tour’s name is Memento Mori: pretty self-explanatory. And so it came that some of the songs, such as “Waiting for the Night,” which talks about the quiet of the night and “deliverance,” were more poignant this time.
Another example is “Wrong,” one of my favorites and one that the crowd gobbled up. I was dancing, singing, all while wondering about Dave’s feelings. He did drugs and once flatlined for two minutes, and yet his bandmate Fletch, who was the most well-behaved of the three of them (for his part, Martin had trouble with alcohol at one point), died aged only 60. Of course, in the land of musicians, 60 can be considered old, but, as Dave said, they used to joke that Andy would be the last to go.
During “World in My Eyes” photos of Andy Fletcher’s face, with eyes both open and closed, appeared on the side screens and the one at the back of the stage. It was a tender and tough moment. “World in My Eyes” was Fletch’s favorite song.
I’d say that compared to their 2013 concert, which I also attended here in Bucharest, Dave and Martin appeared more heartfelt. If the Delta Machine tour concert had been more about showmanship, with Dave electrified and doing all his dance moves, this was a more toned-down show but still very powerful because the energy was still there, even if of a slightly different vibe, and then Dave and Martin’s voices were gorgeous. They did “Waiting for the Night” on a bit of stage that jutted out into the crowd, and their voices, right there, naked and superbly modulated, encapsulated all the charm of the understated side of their brilliance.
It was an acoustic version, accompanied only by a bit of keyboard. Somehow, I felt, the sound management was not too great this time around for some of the pieces. In 2013, if I recall correctly, the sounds were clearer. Here they were a little drowned sometimes in a bit of loudspeaker hum?
But the guys were great. Dave and Martin were in great form vocally and Christian Eigner was wonderful on drums. Peter Gordeno at keyboards, bass guitar, and backing vocals was also nice. I’m reading online that he started touring with Depeche Mode in 1998. In fact, Peter Gordeno and Christian Eigner played with the band in 2013 as well, on their Delta Machine tour.
The concert started with two songs I was unfamiliar with, as somehow the songs I’ve heard on the radio recently didn’t compel me to listen to their latest album. I’m not one to say that their best songs stopped in the nineties, by any means (“Waiting for the Night,” for instance, is from 1990), as I loved the new Delta Machine songs on their 2013 tour, along with many others from the more recent albums. It’s just that the Memento Mori songs don’t do the whole trick for me. Yet. Because, as it happens, I’m sure I’ll be listening to their latest album more after this concert, and coming to enjoy them better. [P.S. I’ve done that multiple times now and I find the album quite enjoyable.]
Looking back at the 2013 setlist, it’s uncanny how many of the hits performed this time match that list. “Walking in My Shoes,” “Never Let Me Down Again,” “Just Can’t Get Enough,” “Personal Jesus,” “Home,” and others. And yet there was room for variation in both concerts, partly to include some pieces from the latest album, as I mentioned.
After an intro and two pieces from the Memento Mori album, these hits and others started coming in, both the very rhythmic kind and the more quiet songs, followed by the rain.
We did expect some rain, but I hoped it would be a light summer shower. Well, it poured.
The rain took the concert to a different level. Dave and Martin smiled numerous times from then on, and I loved to see them smile. And the crowd’s energy went through the roof (so to speak).
Of course, the stage needed to be mopped now and then, but they did it most efficiently and without losing the connection with the audience.
And another great thing happened when it started to rain. People started putting away their smartphones and really getting into the mood of the concert, dancing and singing and all. This is what concerts are for, and yet people are so used to being behind their smartphones that they don’t realize how much of their life they’re exchanging for it.
In 2013 people were using mostly pocket cameras, but above all, they were dancing and waving their hands — something that happened last night more and more as our feet got soaked. (After walking home an hour and a half after the concert, mine were positively pickled.)
What a night I had! Dave and Martin and the rest of the band gave me a boost of energy to reverberate for years to come.
I will also remember last night’s crowd. People were joyful and kind to each other, smiling all the time when they enjoyed a particular passage in a song, and, at least where I was, singing the lyrics with deep abandon. I am a big Depeche Mode fan myself, but I don’t know the lyrics to a T, so I was in awe of these fans.
A guy next to me kept turning his head to smile at me when I, too, voiced some of the lyrics. From the way he interacted, I took it he wasn’t Romanian. He could have been Bulgarian, for instance.
It was also nice to watch the people on the pitch before the show. Everyone was looking for a place of their own in the crowd. Some people were dressed in smart summer clothes, like dresses with asymmetrical edges, mostly bare feet, and sandals. A guy was dressed in a pair of shorts and sported a bare chest. An older guy straight from the Romanian countryside had an old-fashioned hat. Some seventy-year-old women (there were some of those as well) were dressed in comfy summer shirts and pants.
Many people were wearing Depeche Mode T-shirts, bought at various concerts throughout the years. I spotted a Violator T-shirt from 1990 among these tees. The fan probably traveled to a different country for the concert, as DM first came to Bucharest only in 2006.
Compared to 2013, the crowd included more anodyne-looking people, casual fans who seemed to have come from a walk in the park or a round at the gym, as I said, to see the band. In 2013 the crowd was a little more edgy and it included a lot more teenagers.
This time around, it looked like the core fans on the pitch had gotten older with the band. Which has gotten older in spirit as well. There was a definite sense of that, and I’m not only talking about their latest album (or the eponymous one before that), which their press release described as “the opening of [their] newest chapter.” There was this energy coming from Dave and Martin that was a little more charged with meaning. Okay, that doesn’t sound too well, as there was plenty of meaning about life and the world in their older songs and tours as well. More wisdom from a crazy full life then? Yes, Dave seemed to be saying, have the fun of your life like me here twirling for you (though not as much as in the past), but also remember that you will die. Think about that a little as well. Memento Mori. And, as Martin sang, remember that your soul carries on.
This is quite a strange departure from many of their earlier songs, such as “Blasphemous Rumours.” Or even “Personal Jesus,” which is a stab at religious proselytizing fervor.
Many of their die-hard fans must have been flabbergasted by the turn. I wasn’t. I was a little scared by the scrawny Dave in the 1993 “I Feel You” video and much appreciate the sober one now. He looks like a man who has taken ownership of his body and soul and mind, with everything they’ve been through, including that famous flatline in 2006 (when he says he floated to the ceiling and looked upon himself lying there without a heartbeat) and going through surgery for bladder cancer in 2009.
Dave Gahan and Martin Gore, two of my favorite super-talented people on this earth, are now in their very early sixties. I wish them the best and look forward to following them on their future musical journeys, with DM, Soulsavers, and other collaborations.
Here’s the setlist for their Wednesday concert in Bucharest.
Intro
My Cosmos Is Mine
Wagging Tongue
Walking In My Shoes
It’s No Good
Sister Of Night
In Your Room
Everything Counts
Precious
Speak To Me
Home
Soul With Me
I Feel You
A Pain That I’m Used To
World In My Eyes
Wrong
Stripped
John The Revelator
Enjoy The Silence
Waiting For The Night
Just Can’t Get Enough
Never Let Me Down Again
Personal Jesus
Some of the last songs were part of an encore.
Superb concert!
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To a happier, healthier life,
🙂 Mira
HappierHealthier.Blog 