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And while that may seem like a small part of a concert’s experience, the design cheapened everything from the music to the performance.
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The stylized/distorted live feed - close-ups of Gahan and Gore - were much more tolerable than the elementary, nonsensical graphic design that too-often plagued the screen. The graphics (of babies and old men, of trees and ravens) were amateurish, ridiculous, superfluous and unnecessary. The evening’s other major misstep: The embarrassing graphics that accompanied each song on the mammoth screen hung behind the band. Keep one of the “Faith and Devotion” songs, and that leaves four open slots for something else - a new approach to anything off “Some Great Reward” or an old, by-the-numbers take on something from “Music For the Masses.” It would be easy to give the band props for sticking (mostly) to their latest work if their latest work warranted celebration, but it doesn’t. Yes, this is a lot of time to spend dissing a band’s setlist. “Walking in My Shoes,” “In Your Room” and “I Feel You” sounded excessive and odd, especially since the band wasted two more slots with songs (“Home” and “It’s No Good”) from ’97’s disappointing “Ultra.” “Songs of Faith of Devotion” was a great record in ’93, but it’s hardly worth three songs in concert in 2009. “Never Let Me Down Again” was the night’s highlight, a driving collaboration that had the band connecting on all fronts. “Somebody,” opening the first encore with only Gore and a mate on keys, was quite pretty and solemn. “Fly on the Windscreen” sounded thick but lacked the sneer of the original. addition to the band’s catalog, the others - “In Chains,” “Hole to Feed,” “Jezebel” and others played - are little more than filler. Sure, they’re going to throw four or five songs in from the lackluster, new outing “Sounds of the Universe.” And while “Wrong” is an O.K. But that didn’t make their Red Rocks show a quality concert. What could have been a veteran band making a statement, a declaration of vitality and relevance, instead waffled into an unmemorable singalong.ĭid I sing along with Gahan and Martin Gore as they worked their way through the set? Sure, I did. But the lasting impression of the band’s Colorado show was fleeting and impermeable. The show was heavy on nostalgia and light on substance - and most of the nostalgia was of the slightly more recent variety. On the other side, the band rocked a set that paid little attention to its immense catalog from the ’80s, focusing instead on the darker music that has defined its songs since the release of 1990’s “Violator.”īoth are true. On one side, the seminal British synth-pop band relied too heavily on nostalgia, putting forth a mediocre performance of a sub-par set list that tried (and missed) to recreate what made the band special in the first place. Photos by Mark Osler.ĭepeche Mode played two sides of the coin at its Red Rocks show last week. Live review: Depeche Mode Red Rocks Amphitheatre – The Denver Post Close Menuĭepeche Mode singer David Gahan got his voice back in time for his band’s show at Red Rocks Amphitheatre last week, but that wasn’t enough to save the show.