Depeche Mode in concert

Depeche Mode

If you're legendary synth-poppers Depeche Mode, how do you agitate your longtime fans? How's this: During the first of two nights at New York's Madison Square Garden, plan your set list around your latest, middling album (“Sounds of the Universe”) and then forget everything you wrote before 1986 (save for "Master and Servant"). Yep, no "People Are People," "Just Can't Get Enough" and, amazingly, the should-have-been-sing-along encore, "Everything Counts." Also: Pretend you're now a guitar band that just dabbles in synths. That said, it was nice to see increasingly buff frontman David Gahan, a few months past surgery to remove a tumor, twirling around the stage, seemingly back at 100 percent. And, set list aside, the band still produced a few goose bumps, most notably on the rousing "Enjoy the Silence." Here's hoping they start trotting out the classics soon.—Kirk Miller, Metromix