Gahan, Depeche Mode Back From the Brink

Depeche Mode’s four-date engagement in the L.A. area--the band’s first Southland performances in five years--has proven to be something of a bittersweet homecoming for the English band’s singer, Dave Gahan.

While Southern California remains one of the strongest markets for these electro-pop elder statesmen (with the band’s two Great Western Forum dates over the weekend and its Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim shows Sunday and Tuesday all sold out), it’s also the scene of the two darkest episodes in Gahan’s life: a suicide attempt and a drug overdose. So a little skittishness is certainly to be expected.

“When I first get here, I feel a certain kind of vibe, ‘cause I lived out a certain role here for so many years,” says Gahan, 36, a former L.A. resident. “But that wasn’t who I was--it was a fabrication that was created with the lifestyle. Coming back here, I always think to myself, ‘What the hell happened here for so long?’ ”

Gahan, clad in a crisply pressed white shirt and black overcoat, is trying to steady his nerves with a little espresso and some quiet time in his Forum dressing room before Friday’s show. Gahan regards this first L.A. concert as a litmus test to determine whether Depeche Mode can still cut it with some of its most devoted fans, and a placid backstage atmosphere is crucial to his routine. The sycophants, drugs and revelries are behind him now.

“When I used to come back a couple of years ago, I had to come armed with friends,” he says. “L.A. can be very beautiful and pretty, but on the other side it can be very dark, and at one point in my life, I was drawn to that.”

Gahan is referring to the time a few years ago when he gravitated to debauchery and spiritual dissipation. A co-founder of Depeche Mode, by far the most successful band to emerge from the New Romantic pop movement of the early ‘80s, Gahan relocated to Los Angeles from Britain in ’91 and quickly became a walking rock-star cliche, isolating himself from both his family and fellow band members and growing increasingly dependent on heroin.

In August 1995, a despondent and strung-out Gahan tried to commit suicide in his Hollywood Hills home by slashing his wrists. Less than a year later, on Memorial Day, he overdosed on heroin at the Sunset Marquis hotel, was pronounced clinically dead for five minutes, and was then arrested on possession charges almost immediately after being revived.

That summer, he was placed in a court-ordered drug rehab program. And now that Gahan has cleaned up and is back touring with Depeche Mode, the phrase “rock ‘n’ roll comeback” has taken on a whole new meaning.

“All I did was change my whole life,” says Gahan when asked about his journey toward sobriety. “The people I hung out with, the places I went to. It’s a very long process, though--when you’ve been getting high for as long as I was, it’s not something you can change overnight. It was painful for a while, because you don’t have that crutch to fall back on.”

There were also fences to be mended with bandmates Martin Gore and Andrew Fletcher, both of whom were dealing with substance abuse problems of their own. The three had become estranged not long after the release of their 1993 platinum-selling album, “Songs of Faith and Devotion,” but commercial expedience and a keen survival instinct prevailed, and the trio decided to press on. In 1997, they released “Ultra,” the band’s 10th studio album, to critical acclaim. The current tour is in support of the band’s two-CD greatest-hits package, “The Singles 86-98.”

Still, Gahan seems to regard Depeche Mode as little more than an efficient, and quite lucrative, business partnership among three pragmatic musicians. “We get along as much as we have to,” he says. “We play together onstage, and that’s basically it.”

If that’s the case, Depeche Mode has learned how to sublimate its estrangement onstage. The band was at the top of its game on Friday, delivering a set top-heavy with such hits as “A Question of Time” and “Personal Jesus” before a fanatical crowd. Each stark synthesizer riff seemed to trigger an explosive volley of crowd noise. Dressed in a black shirt and vest, Gahan was a brooding yet playful satyr, singing the band’s darkly romantic anthems in his distinctive baritone and twirling across the stage with twisted tango moves.

But the show’s ultimate triumph, of course, was Gahan’s mere presence, and it wasn’t lost on the fans, who cheered on his every move and vocal mannerism. And despite Gahan’s “strictly business” attitude, one couldn’t help but notice an occasional smile crossing his lips.

Depeche Mode plays Tuesday at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim, 2695 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim, (714) 704-2500, 8 p.m. Sold out.