On the back of their best-album-in-decade ("Playing The Angel"), they bring their perversely original mix of disco guilt to the freshly opened Wembley Arena and..

... they make everyone feel like teenagers again. Get in touch with your inner virgin, wear a bit of black. To start with, The Mode offer us The Bravery, who continue the tradition of Shit Support Acts for all time. Having seen them before outdoors in the daylight, I'm of the same opinion that The Bravery are what happened if Spandau Ballet and Duran Duran had a quickie in the alley behind the Hacienda, and got it adopted. Quite what they're doing supporting techno gods like New Order and Depeche Mode, I don't know.

You can tell it's a Depeche Mode gig by a few certain factors.

Surrounded by people talking german?

Surrounded by flags for foreign fansites?

Lots of people in black?

Feel like you're in a sad disco?

Yep. It's Depeche Mode alright.

There's also a huge wodge of people who say thinks like "I want to go home" whilst obviously horrendously drunk, totter down the steps to the standing area, and spill their beer. Sadly, the bigger the show, the bigger likelihood there will be an idiot present.

In the meantime, though, Depeche Mode still have to start. The lights darken, the hall falls into a shroud of blackness, and Depeche uncurl a veritable Greatest Hits which sees them playing less than half of their singles, yet still feels like a celebration of all that is perversely human : our faults, our fears, and our need to find something irresistible in self-pity.

I don't know what happened in the meantime - maybe it's the debut solo tours from the band's frontmen Martin Gore and Dave Gahan - but somehow, they seem more alive than previously. Maybe it’s the knowledge that, at their mid 40's, and with fifteen albums in their oeuvre, maybe they realised that time is running out - and now everything counts. (I know, awful pun, but necessary). 

Unlike many acts of the same age and history, the Mode aren't a nostalgia act. They still make good records, still play plenty of the new stuff live, and still try new things : consistently exploring. And whilst musically it can appear that they have boxed themselves into a corner, one could instead be charitable and suggest that they have refine their vision to something uniquely populist, yet also fiercely individual.

New material is received as well as the old classics - albeit, overall the older songs are faster, and get a more lively reception - with "A Pain That I'm Used To", "Suffer Well", and "Precious" sounding like they've always been Depeche Mode songs.

After the first hour, comprising most of new songs within the set that are at worst tolerated, and at best, enjoyed raptourously - the opening punch includes  "John The Revelator", "Policy Of Truth", "A Question Of Time", and "Walking In My Shoes", which sounds like a Greatest Hits all of its own - the second half moves into a history lesson : in the nicest possible sense of the world.

Next to me, an incredibly keen man runs into the crowd, screams "YES! LETS BE 15 AGAIN!" and from there on in, it's an endless double, triple, ultra whammy of songs that we've heard in the car a gazillion times before. By the end, as the crowd eats out of the palm of their hands, and the closing bars of "Personal Jesus", "Enjoy The Silence", "Just Can't Get Enough", and a multitude of others bring some small satisfaction to 10,000 people - both looking back and what was and to what the future may bring.

Aside from the musical quality of the performance, which is immaculate, finely honed, almost military in it's precision, Depeche also know how to put on a definitive show : the presentation sees a innovative use of what can only be described as a giant semi-BDSM Neon Mothership, multi video screens with random feeds, and live footage bent out of shape in a way that makes it always visually interesting at a minimum.

And the songs? The kind of perverse stadium pop that speaks the subconscious language of every human : guilt, love, a recognition of the darkness and the light that lives within all of us. If this is arena rock, then that is not necessarily as bad a thing as one can fear.

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