See Depeche Mode Perform Outsider Ode ‘Cover Me’ on ‘Kimmel’

As Depeche Mode make their way around the West Coast on their ongoing Global Spirit tour, the band stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live to play “Cover Me,” a brooding rock song off 2017’s Spirit LP. 

The group, who are newly nominated to enter the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, performed under dark-hued blue light as filmmaker Anton Corbijn’s astronaut-themed video for the tune was projected on a giant screen behind them. Dave Gahan leaned into the mic while Martin Gore played slinky slide guitar.

Gahan cowrote the song with the group’s touring drummer, Christian Eigner, and keyboardist, Peter Gordeno. Earlier this year, he explained the meaning of the tune to Rolling Stone. “It’s about a person who travels to another planet only to find that, much to his dismay, it’s exactly the same as earth,” he said. “It’s a different planet but the same. He really can’t get away from himself. If he wants things to change, he’s going to have to implement it.”

The band will be playing a run of California dates this month before heading up to Washington and Seattle and then up into Canada, rounding out the North American leg of the tour.