Memento Mori, the name of Depeche Mode’s latest album and current world tour, means “remember you must die” in Latin – a fitting enough title considering that the long-running band has been reduced to a duo following the death of co-founder Andy Fletcher last year.
But Dave Gahan and Martin Gore, whose sublime synth-pop has been fueled by pessimism and darkness for decades, bristled with vitality while facing mortality head-on during a Friday (April 14) night show at New York City’s Madison Square Garden.
From a bedazzled skull spinning on a video screen during classic Violator cut “Enjoy the Silence” to Gore’s harrowing lead vocal on “Soul With Me” (a quiet ballad on the new album which finds him gently preparing for the hereafter), the Reaper might as well be the silent third member of the band; even so, there’s nothing grim about what Depeche Mode delivers in 2023.
Gahan seemed tapped into a supernatural energy throughout the evening, twirling and prowling about the stage like a sensual, vampiric Elvis, wiggling his hips one moment and spreading his arms like the demon perched atop Bald Mountain in Fantasia the next. Vocally, there was no faulting him – from the high notes he trotted out on “Precious” to the grit he brought to “John the Revelator,” Gahan’s voice remains an inexhaustible treasure. And on “World in My Eyes,” the evening’s explicit tribute to Fletcher, Gahan’s delivery felt especially resonant.
Depeche Mode is hardly the first band to solider on following the death of a core member. But while most bands in a similar position tend to isolate their onstage mourning, performing one poignant tribute song before pivoting back to a high-octane set, DM’s entire Memento Mori concert felt like a meditation on the inevitable end that awaits us all. Which isn’t to say the concert was in any way depressing – if anything, the band’s brush with the undiscovered country has left it focused and present. “Remember you must die” is a phrase that might lead some to despair, but for Depeche Mode, it’s seemingly a catalyst to make every moment count.