Dropping the synths for Soulsavers’ beefed up guitars, Basildon’s Elvis is too charismatic to blend in with the band
What would Depeche Mode sound like if they binned the synths and turned up the guitars? Dave Gahan’s occasional collaboration with producer/guitarist Rich “Soulsavers” Machin is the answer to that question. Expanded to a nine-piece for this one-off UK show, Soulsavers are the spaghetti western version of Gahan’s day-band, exuding the same soul-flagellating, perversely-catchy foreboding. If Mode – whose Andy Fletcher is observing from the balcony tonight – are the go-to operators for electronic damnation, Soulsavers transfer the whole thing to a wider, dustier screen. During the encore, Gahan even demonstrates the link by breaking out the Mode’s Condemnation and Walking in My Shoes: they take to Machin’s twangy embellishment as if they’d always been there.
Gahan and Soulsavers’ first mutually billed album, Angels & Ghosts, came out last week, and is played nearly in full here. A 2012 unofficial collaboration, The Light the Dead See, and Gahan’s two solo albums fill out the setlist, but only Mode’s hardcore fanbase, the Black Swarm, can tell the difference between Soulsavers material and solo Gahan (hint: the volume of the applause rises noticeably during the latter). Gahan, for his part, is the same as ever: he’s Basildon’s Elvis, still supple and posing at 53, his addiction to the spotlight the only one of his rock-star addictions that hasn’t succumbed to a 12-step programme.
He cruises the murkily-lit stage, in tremendous form. Though he makes an effort to be part of the Soulsavers crew, grinning at the other musicians and trio of backing singers, he’s too charismatic to blend in. It says a lot for his magnetism that he can transform the dourness of, say, You Owe Me (“I’m back where I came from, what a sight for sore eyes, a sour reminder of how hard I’ve tried”) into a post-watershed seduction piece. As first among equals in the Soulsavers, Gahan is thriving, and the rest of them aren’t doing badly either.
Az eredeti cikk itt olvasható: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/oct/27/dave-gahan-soulsavers-review-depeche-mode-reframed-as-widescreen-rock?CMP=share_btn_tw
