Depeche Mode at Hollywood Bowl
photo by Coen Rees

Depeche Mode brought glamorous melancholy Hollywood Bowl (pics, review, setlist)

Depeche Mode are in the midst of their four-night run at LA’s Hollywood Bowl — they’re the first band ever to play four consecutive shows there). On Monday (10/16) they played their third show, all of which featured support from Warpaint, and we were there to check it out.

Los Angeles loves Depeche Mode and Monday’s crowd was fired up. The band backed by a giant video screen, in front of which which Dave Gahan appeared on a riser for maximum theatricality. To Depeche Mode’s credit, they didn’t seem particularly interested in reliving their glory days with a nonstop stream of hits, instead playing a set which focused largely on new material, including much of this year’s Spirit. While the crowd lost it for songs like “World in My Eyes” and set-closer “Personal Jesus,” classics like “Just Can’t Get Enough” or “Master and Servant” were nowhere to be seen.

Monday did get the tour debuts of “It’s No Good” and an acoustic “Insight,” both from 1997’s Ultra. Setlists have been pretty similar across the three Hollywood Bowl shows so far — and to the Madison Square Garden shows (and the whole tour). But the new material was no less effective in that space — Depeche Mode are a band built for a huge venue like Hollywood Bowl, their music all grand gestures of glamorous melancholy. Dave is a tremendously engaging frontman, and he danced all over the stage, expertly getting the crowd worked up (they cheered loudest at some of his moves).

Ultimately it was a very fun night. Depeche Mode have always been a singular band, and at the Bowl, a place that often plays host to legacy acts, they declared that they haven’t lost any of that singularity. They played a set that was free of pandering, and it was a richer experience for it. Setlists from Monday and the two previous Hollywood Bowl shows are below, and a few pics from the show are in the gallery above (we’ll have a full set soon). Depeche Mode’s wraps up their Hollywood Bowl run tonight (10/18).

While I was initially surprised, stylistically speaking, to see that Warpaint were touring with Depeche Mode (not to mention Harry Styles), they were a very good fit. A lot of their songs had a driving, Krautrock energy provided in large part by their excellent drummer, and they were sufficiently dark and moody for the crowd that clearly likes darker shades of glam.

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Depeche Mode — 10/16 Hollywood Bowl Setlist
Going Backwards
It’s No Good
Barrel of a Gun
A Pain That I’m Used To
Corrupt
In Your Room
World in My Eyes
Cover Me
Insight (acoustic)
Home
Poison Heart
Where’s the Revolution
Wrong
Everything Counts
Stripped
Enjoy the Silence
Never Let Me Down Again

Encore:
Shake the Disease (acoustic)
Walking in My Shoes
Black Celebration
I Feel You
Personal Jesus

Depeche Mode — 10/14 Hollywood Bowl Setlist
Going Backwards
So Much Love
Barrel of a Gun
A Pain That I’m Used To
Corrupt
In Your Room
World in My Eyes
Cover Me
Strangelove (acoustic)
Home
Policy of Truth
Where’s the Revolution
Wrong
Everything Counts
Stripped
Enjoy the Silence
Never Let Me Down Again

Encore:
Judas
Walking in My Shoes
“Heroes”(David Bowie)
I Feel You
Personal Jesus

Depeche Mode — 10/12 Hollywood Bowl Setlist
Going Backwards
So Much Love
Barrel of a Gun
A Pain That I’m Used To
Corrupt
In Your Room
World in My Eyes
Cover Me
A Question of Lust (acoustic)
Home
Poison Heart
Where’s the Revolution
Wrong
Everything Counts
Stripped
Enjoy the Silence
Never Let Me Down Again

Encore:
Somebody
Walking in My Shoes
“Heroes” (David Bowie)
I Feel You
Personal Jesus



photos by Coen Rees