A sold-out Amway Center ‘just couldn’t get enough’ of Depeche Mode — and neither could we

The rule of thumb for legendary bands hitting the road for one! more! time! [is this a hot take? no it is lukewarm at best]  is to manage expectations and lower the bar. Have a couple of drinks and maybe that medley of the hitz will sound at least OK. And yet Depeche Mode, in town to play a sold-out Amway Center as part of their resurgent “Memento Mori” jaunt, tore our usually nostalgia-immune heart into a million tiny pieces on Tuesday. And we’re just fine with that.

The Mode’s newest album, Memento Mori, is variously a heartfelt tribute to fallen bandmate Andrew Fletcher, a moving meditation on aging and mortality, and their strongest work since Songs of Faith and Devotion. New numbers like “My Cosmos Is Mine” and “Ghosts Again” were played with just as much verve as evergreen hits like “Personal Jesus” and “Everything Counts.”

Production was top-shelf, with Anton Corbijn vids and a gigantic “M” dwarfing the stage, but the quartet of musicians were the true focal points, with an absolutely unself-conscious performance that took in the lust-driven rock-moves of “I Feel You” down through the peerless synth-pop of “Stripped” and an “Enjoy the Silence” that saw the audience taking lead vocals in a touching (and thematically) apropos moment.

Dave Gahan and Martin Gore might not be the willowy sex symbols of yore — or maybe they are, judging by our reactions and those of everyone unlucky enough to be near us — but the duo sweated and strutted and shredded and wore cute vests in a way that would put much younger bands to shame. The machines have heart (and other organs too)! A dramatically stripped-down reading of “Condemnation” at the lip of the stage was touching proof positive of the affection these old bandmates still have for one another.

Does pop music really have the power to transform society, especially in this age of endless horrors? No, god, of course not. But hearing intensely open-hearted songs like “Condemndation” and “World in My Eyes” (a young Depeche Mode always got some flak for being notttt quite world-weary enough) played like our collective lives depended on it … well, maybe that’ll get us through to tomorrow at least.