You have to admire Dave Gahan's bravery. It cannot be easy to launch a songwriting career after spending almost a quarter-century singing someone else's material, particularly when that someone else is Depeche Mode's Martin Gore. However, if Gahan is nervous, it certainly does not show on stage.

Decades of playing vast American stadiums have left an indelible mark. There is no hope of his scaling down his performance to fit the more intimate venue. You suspect he couldn't ask you directions to the nearest post office without ripping his shirt off, grabbing his crotch and twirling a microphone stand above his head.

Despite the grandstanding, Gahan's enthusiasm seems unforced. Dashing across the stage to slap hands with the audience, he trips over and lands head-first in the front row. Nothing if not professional, he emerges clutching a homemade banner that reads, Dave You're the Daddy: "Yer," he says, "and don't you forget it."

In contrast to Depeche Mode and their bondage wear, his backing band are blokeish fortysomethings who appear to have chanced upon a job lot of vests. Their presence fits with a side of Gahan's character rarely catered for by the bleakly sinister Depeche Mode. For all his dark personal history, a hint of unreconstructed Essex Man has always clung to the Basildon-born singer. Tonight, he salutes his family - "'Ullo mum!" - and exchanges smiles with the guitarist on his left, perhaps relieved that, for once, the guitarist on his left has not elected to wear a leather miniskirt and slingbacks.

Gahan's ballads reveal a lyrical gaucheness - A Little Piece rhymes "All alone and bad" with "I really feel quite sad" - but Dirty Sticky Floors and Bottle Living have the same sleazy power as Personal Jesus and Never Let Me Down Again. As the audience sing along to the encore of Enjoy the Silence, Gahan appears to be having the time of his life.

· At the Move festival, Manchester, on Saturday. Box office: 0870 534 4444. Then touring.