Actually, the 1987 classic “Never Let Me Down Again” is THE brotherhood song at Depeche Mode concerts. The song, which is only played in the encore section of almost all of the British band’s tours, is usually used by singer Dave Gahan to motivate the fans to wave their arms – a well-rehearsed gesture, a live evergreen.
At the Depeche Mode appearance in Los Angeles on Friday (December 15, 2023) a unique event occurred. The four musicians had to restart the song for the first time because Gahan had to calm down something in the front row – perhaps a fan got the other’s arm in the face?
“Hey, hey! Ho, Ho!”, Gahan tries to draw attention to himself in the middle of the song. And then calls out to his colleagues: “Stop! Stop.” The band stops in the middle of the verse. Then the singer points to the troublemaker: “It can’t be that important now, can it?” And then points to others: “And you? Are you okay?”
Finally Dave starts to laugh, he understands why there was such a commotion at the front: “So THAT is the reason for the argument! He lost his phone!”. Gahan laughs at the audience. “His fucking phone!” Meanwhile, the poor fan is staring into the stage pit, where his cell phone seems to be lying. The crowd boos and cheers – no wonder one of Depeche Mode’s most popular songs had to be interrupted because of this.
Then Dave gets ready again and gives the fan another high-five. “Actually, we don’t want to have to worry about something like that!” he says to the man. He made it clear again and again on stage that Gahan doesn’t think much of cell phone recordings by always looking silly into the audience’s cameras. Well, at least: DM are not exactly known for their improvisations – “Never Let Me Down Again” was probably heard for the first time one and a half times. There are worse things.
By the way, the performance in Los Angeles had another surprise in store: In his solo block, Martin Gore sang the 2013 song “Heaven” from the “Delta Machine” album live for the first time.
Setlist Depeche Mode on December 15th in Los Angeles, Crypto.com Arena
Intro (Speak To Me)
My Cosmos Is Mine
Wagging Tongue
Walking In My Shoes
It’s No Good
Policy Of Truth
In Your Room
Everything Counts
Precious
Speak To Me
A Question Of Lust
Heaven
Ghosts Again
I feel you
A Pain That I’m Used To
World In My Eyes
Black Celebration
Stripped
John the Revelator
Enjoy the silence
Encore
Waiting For The Night
Just Can’t Get Enough
Never Let Me Down Again
Personal Jesus