Depeche Mode enliven their moody music at Glendale Arena

Albert Ching, Tribune

November 26, 2005 - 4:54AM

Throughout their 25-year career, Britain’s Depeche Mode have been known for their dreary anthems — melodic yet morose songs with titles such as “Never Let Me Down Again” and “World Full of Nothing.”

Yet one would never have guessed as much from the sight of lead singer Dave Gahan cheerfully leading the crowd in rousing sing-alongs and hand-claps during numbers like “Everything Counts” and “Personal Jesus.” Friday night at the nearly-full Glendale Arena, he was making like an aging goth version of Kenny Chesney at the world’s hippest state fair.

Gleefully prancing around the stage, Gahan resembled a more effeminate Mick Jagger (whose Rolling Stones will take the same stage Sunday). Seemingly completely absolved of the personal problems that plagued him for much of the late ’90s, Gahan writhed, posed, vamped and touched his groin an uncomfortable amount of times.

He arrived on stage clad all in black: jacket, sleeveless vest/shirt and pants. The jacket was gone by the third song, the vest unbuttoned by the fifth, and the singer was shirtless towards the end of the set, as Gahan is apparently quite proud of the way his 43-year-old torso looks. Musically, his signature baritone was on full display, giving even the newest tunes a distinct, recognizable quality.

The band played seven songs from their newly released “Playing the Angel” CD, which were all well-received — showing either that the audience weren’t just fly-by-night fans there for the big hits, or that it pays to have a consistent sound over the years. Either way, it’s encouraging to see a group with so much material to draw from (11 studio albums) and so many big hits in their catalogue, showing such strong faith in their new material. Indeed, many of their biggest hits — especially older ones such as “People Are People” and “Strangelove” — were skipped, although requisites like “Enjoy the Silence” and “Policy of Truth” (both from their smash 1990 disc, “Violator”) were in the mix.

Of course, Dave Gahan isn’t the only important piece of the Depeche Mode puzzle — guitarist, keyboardist and primary songwriter Martin Gore (who was sporting a pair of wings, in either a nod to the new album title or an homage to the previous day’s turkey-centric holiday) took lead vocals on the mournful “Damaged People” and the uplifting “Home” in the middle of the set. Gore’s voice is higher pitched than Gahan’s and those songs are more emotional than much of the rest of the ones played, so it provided a nice mid-concert respite from The Dave Gahan Show.

Lavishly arranged, Depeche Mode's stage set-up was definitely befitting of an arena tour. Six crookedly arranged video screens projected images, sometimes having a thematic tie to what was being performed (a crudely drawn king character accompanying “Enjoy the Silence,” referencing the song’s video) and sometimes merely coming across as an outlet for Gahan’s narcissism (close-up shots of his midriff, booty-shakin’ behind and aforementioned groin during “The World In My Eyes”).

Harmonious Danish duo the Raveonettes treated a sparse, late-arriving crowd to a brief set of their ’60s flavored rock.

Set list:

Intro

A Pain That I’m Used To

John the Revelator

A Question of Time

Policy of Truth

Precious

Walking In My Shoes

Suffer Well

Damaged People

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