Depeche Mode tour Baltics substance-free

RIGA - Thousands of people in the region flocked to see the British band Depeche Mode on the Baltic leg of their latest world tour. Over 15,000 people turned out in Tallinn, some 20,000 in Riga, and a whopping 26,000 went to the concert in Vilnius - though many couldn't see as far as the stage.

Latvian stars Prata Vetra (Brainstorm) backed the megastars on the Baltic dates but put up a mediocre performance that prompted complaints clearly audible in the Riga audience. "Same old stuff,"was one girl's opinion.

The Mode are back after a shaky recent history. The band spent most of the 1990s in a drug- or alcohol-induced haze, and lead singer Dave Gahan spent time in rehabilitation clinics following a near-fatal overdose.

As tension mounted before the band made their appearance at a packed Skonto stadium in Riga, the audience grew restless. "Wheel out the junkies!"shouted one man.

But band members Martin Gore (songwriter, lead guitar and vocals) Andy Fletcher (keyboards) and Gahan seemed far from comatose as they pranced about the stage swinging microphone stands and shaking their half-clad torsos.

Songs from the new album, which bears the tongue-in-cheek title "Exciter,"rubbed shoulders with older hits like the 1986's "Black Celebration"and the classics "Personal Jesus"and "Enjoy the Silence."

Artist Anton Corbijn, who teamed up with Depeche Mode back in 1986 to help give them a darker feel, is back on this tour to give the stage his personal touch with lasers, flashing spotlights and moody black-and-white films projected behind the band.

This is the second time the band (the first was in 1998) has toured the Baltic states, where much of the band's backlog of music became enormously popular in the first years of independence.

When the concert was over, and the crowd tried to wade through an ocean of empty plastic beer cups, there was one final treat: a heart-warming firework display.