T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas
1st December, 2023

Depeche Mode are certainly among the bands whose fandom has been among my most enduring. Digging through Google, I might have first seen them as long ago as 1986 at Wembley Arena. Certainly, it’s at least thirty years, since I definitely was there at Crystal Palace in 1993, when they were supported by the Sisters of Mercy. It’s no exaggeration to say we’ve got old together, an aspect driven home by the unfortunate death of keyboardist Andy Fletcher last year. That seems to have concentrated the minds of surviving members Martin Gore and Dave Gahan, subsequently releasing an album called Memento Mori, whose lead single was titled “Ghosts Again”: “A place to hide the tears that you cried / Everybody says goodbye”.

After Fletcher’s passing, there was some question as to whether the band would tour again, but when the album was released, concerts were announced to go with it. Tickets were not cheap: the average seat in Vegas when they played there on the first leg was over two hundred dollars. Add on airfare, hotels, etc, and having seen them play locally in September 2017, I decided not to bother. Chris, however, was made of sterner stuff, and so for my birthday, got us tickets, and arranged the rest of the package. It has been a good five years since the last time we were in Vegas, with a lot of things – not least a pandemic – under the bridge. It was also our first time at the venue, which opened in 2016, and is home to the local ice hockey team, the Las Vegas Knights. It’s located just off the strip, behind the New York New York casino, and for concerts, holds around fifteen thousand people.

The show was supposed to be sold out, but there were empty seats here and there. Two of them were next to us. Perhaps they fell into a crevasse on the way up, for it was quite a climb to the top level. That was at least escalator-assisted. More problematic was the steep rake of stairs down to our seats, which had Chris inquiring politely about whether she could claim a disabled spot at the top instead. Stouter hearts prevailed, though once settled in, that was it. There was not even a trip to the bathroom the rest of the night. The event did have a support act, about whom I can tell you absolutely nothing, since we arrived at the very end of their set. What I heard – admittedly from outside the hall itself – did not inspire me to as much as Google their name.

There is always a certain tension with a band you love. You want them to play the songs you love… but if they are going to sound just like the CD versions, what’s the point? The sweet spot for me, is doing the greatest hits, but in new arrangements. Four of the 23 songs played were off Memento Mori, but otherwise there was little from their 21st-century catalogue. There were some extended versions, such as Never Let Me Down Again. But I think my favorite was an acoustic version of Strangelove, sung by Martin. I’d have been happy listening to a whole concert of similar versions. World in my Eyes was dedicated to the late Mr. Fletcher, performed by Gahan in front of a montage sequence of photos of their late friend, a touching moment.

The show finished with Personal Jesus, whose riff is among the most instantly recognizable of all late eighties songs. Gahan, even as he approaches bus-pass status, can still bring it, twirling and swinging his mic like a man half his age. But the loss of Fletch reminds us all about the inevitability of the end. Not least for somebody like Gahan, whose heart stopped for two minutes in 1996 after he overdosed. So in hindsight, I’m glad we went. You never know when there will be no more Depeche Mode, or no more tours, and you’ll be left to regret all the times you didn’t go to see them.

Set list

• Speak to Me (instrumental outro)
• My Cosmos Is Mine
• Wagging Tongue
• Walking in My Shoes
• It’s No Good
• Policy of Truth
• In Your Room (Zephyr Mix)
• Everything Counts
• Precious
• My Favourite Stranger
• Home
• Strangelove (Acoustic, sung by Martin)
• Ghosts Again
• I Feel You
• A Pain That I’m Used To (Jacques Lu Cont Remix)
• World in My Eyes (Dedicated to Andrew Fletcher)
• Black Celebration
• Stripped
• John the Revelator
• Enjoy the Silence
  Encore
• Condemnation (Acoustic)
• Just Can’t Get Enough
• Never Let Me Down Again
• Personal Jesus

We were in Vegas for the rest of the weekend too, which is always… an experience. It’s great for 48 hours, but by the point it’s time to leave, boy are we ready to get out of town. If feels as if every time we visit, two casinos have been demolished, three built and four have changed their identities. We were in the Rio, which has operated continuously since January 1990 under the same name: not many can say that (Circus Circus and The Mirage are about it). What felt like the biggest change was the noise. Or rather, how comparatively quiet the casinos seemed now. Previously, the perpetual bells and whistles of the slots were overpowering, but now there were times when we couldn’t hear the machine we were playing. Turns out the new digital slots almost all have a volume control players can adjust.

Time not spent fighting the slow, inevitable house edge was passed in various other amusements – most notably, over-eating enthusiastically – as we casino hopped. The hot new attraction was the impressive Sphere (above), though our appreciation was purely external. You think an average of $200 for DM tickets is expensive, the ones at the Sphere to see U2 are around $300. Guess they’ve got to recoup the approximate 2.3 billion dollar cost of building the venue. The city still also seemed to be recovering from the Formula 1 fiasco the previous weekend, e.g. the famed Bellagio fountains being largely obscured by temporary stands put up for the event. There is, literally, always something going on in Las Vegas. Which is another reason I’m glad to be back on the couch, safe from sensory overload. Well, until the next Vegas trip, anyway.