Depeche Mode adds San Diego show to 2023 tour

Dave Gahan at the San Remo Music Festival in Italy, February 11th, 2023

The veteran English synth-pop band, which was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2020, is on the road for first time since 2018

San Diego Union-Tribune

Feb. 16, 2023 1:05 PM PT

The pioneering English synth-pop band Depeche Mode has added 29 North American dates to its 2023 Memento Mori Tour.

The new shows were announced Thursday morning. They are part of the group’s first concert trek since 2018 — and its first since the passing of founding member Andy Fletcher last June.

The new leg of the tour will open Sept. 21 in Mexico City and conclude Dec. 15 in Los Angeles. It includes a Dec. 6 concert at Pechanga Arena San Diego, followed by two dates in Los Angeles: Dec. 10 at Kia Forum and Dec. 15 at Crypto.com Arena.

The four days between the San Diego and Los Angeles concerts, and the four days between its two announced Los Angeles dates, suggest that Depeche Mode’s two remaining members — singer Dave Gahan, 60, and synthesizer player, keyboardist and guitarist Martin Gore, 61 — desire more time off between shows. Or, perhaps more likely, that they will add extra San Diego and Los Angeles concerts if there is sufficient ticket demand.

The name of the tour comes from the title of Depeche Mode’s new album, “Memento Mori,” which will be released March 24. The first leg of the tour begins March 23 in Sacramento.

Tickets for all the new fall tour dates will go on sale to the general public Feb. 24 at 10 a.m. local time. An online pre-sale for fan club members will begin Feb. 21 at 10 a.m. More ticket information is available at depechemode.com.

Tickets for the Dec. 6 San Diego concert are priced from $49.50 to $229.50, plus service fees.

Here are all the newly announced shows on the tour:,

Sept. 21: Mexico City, Foro Sol

Sept. 29: Austin, Moody Center

Oct. 1: Dallas, American Airlines Center

Oct. 4: Houston, Toyota Center

Oct. 7: New Orleans, Smoothie King Center

Oct. 10: Orlando, Amway Center

Oct. 12: Miami, Miami-Dade Arena

Oct. 19: Nashville, Bridgestone Arena

Oct. 21: Brookyn, Barclays Center

Oct. 23: Washington, D.C., Capital One Arena

Oct. 25: Philadelphia, Wells Fargo Center

Oct. 28: New York, Madison Square Garden

Oct. 31: Boston, TD Garden

Nov. 3: Montreal, Centre Bell

Nov. 5 Toronto: Scotiabank Arena

Nov. 8: Detroit, Little Caesars Arena

Nov. 10: Cleveland, Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse

Nov. 13: Chicago, United Center

Nov. 16: Denver, Ball Arena

Nov. 18: Salt Lake City, Vivint Arena

Nov. 21: Edmonton, Rogers Place

Nov. 24: Vancouver, Rogers Arena

Nov. 26: Seattle, Climate Pledge Arena

Nov. 28: Portland, MODA Center

Dec. 1: Las Vegas, T-Mobile Arena

Dec. 3: San Francisco, Chase Center

Dec. 6. San Diego, Pechanga Arena

Dec. 10: Los Angeles, Kia Forum

Dec. 15: Los Angeles, Crypto.com Arena

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George Varga

San Diego Union-Tribune music critic George Varga began drumming in rock bands at 12 and writing professionally about music at 15. A Louisiana native who grew up mostly in Germany, Varga has earned three Pulitzer Prize nominations for his writing at the U-T and is a voting member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In addition to providing live coverage of the Grammy Awards and festivals from Coachella and KAABOO to the 1994 edition of Woodstock, he has interviewed everyone from Miles Davis, Britney Spears and (over a game of chess) Ray Charles to Willie Nelson, Kanye West and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis. A triple first prize-winner for criticism and arts writing at the 2022 San Diego Press Club awards and a first prize-winner at the 2022 San Diego Society of Professional Journalists awards, Varga is also a contributing writer for Jazz Times magazine and has written for Billboard, Spin and other publications. After attending San Diego City College and San Diego State University, he created and taught the 2002 UC San Diego Extension course, “Jazz in a Post-Ken-Burns World.” Varga has written liner notes for more than a dozen albums, including by jazz sax greats James Moody and Michael Brecker, and contributed two chapters to the book, “Dylan: Disc By Disc.”