Depeche Mode at Barclays Center

Perhaps the biggest contradiction about Depeche Mode is that they're popular. 33 years into their increasingly storied career, the synthpop heroes are selling out arenas all over the world, playing songs that should have been killed by grunge, g-funk, techno, emo or really anything that has gone platinum since 1992. But here they are, fawned over by everyone from the Deftones to the Arcade Fire to Shakira, releasing solid new music and packing the $60 nosebleeds section (trust me). "Personal Jesus" has been covered by Johnny Cash and sampled by Hilary Duff's producers. So why the Mode, and not The Human League or Erasure?



Judging from last Friday's show, it's Dave Gahan. I'd undervalued his role in the band, and you might too, if you only know Depeche Mode from their albums. He's credited as writing exactly zero of their great songs and plays nary an instrument. In the liner notes and music videos, he's always handsome, stoic-looking and groomed, the spokesman for these gloomy goth cowboys purely on the fact that he has the deepest voice and darkest eyes. But in person, he's a transcendent figure, a seemingly effortless everyman who can express alienation and despair from tight black leather pants and a shirtless vest, the latter of which only made it through a few songs before getting stripped off. Perfectly chiseled at 51, he looked more Robert Downey, Jr. than Robert Smith, even if he emoted like the latter.

Like the top tier rock stars of his time, Gahan finds the magnetism in his loneliness and expresses it, channeling his Songs of Faith and Devotion into Music for the Masses, or vice versa. He can prance or swing his mic stand like a less self-conscious Bono, somehow without undermining the agony of "Barrel of a Gun" or "Black Celebration." A heated take on "A Question of Time" matched the frantic anxiousness of Joy Division, only moments before Gahan giddily let the arena sing most of "Enjoy the Silence." Lest we forget we were in the presence of a showbiz pro, he prowled almost every square foot of the stage, playing to even the worst seats in the house and bringing us to our feet.

Although Gahan is undeniably the band's star performer, it was not a solo show. Even on their most programmed songs the band sounded fierce, whether ripping into the industrial tones of "I Feel You" with the restlessness of a modern metal band, reimagining the first verse of "Personal Jesus" as a blues dirge (Delta Machine, indeed) or bouncing through "Just Can't Get Enough" as if they hadn't been playing it since 1981. Martin Gore, the band's main songwriter and primary instrumentalist, proved himself an affecting frontman when he took the microphone for the chilling "But Not Tonight" and "Home." Had he never met Gahan, Gore would have been a fine lead singer for Depeche Mode, and they would still have found success. But they probably wouldn't have sold out the Barclays Center.

Best of the Cars

"As I'm buying a car this week (!) you should each make me a playlist about cars," my sister texted her music nerd friends a few days ago. So much for all the other work I was supposed to do this week.



Best of the Cars

1. AC/DC, "Highway to Hell"
2. Public Enemy, "You're Gonna Get Yours"
3. The Clash, "Brand New Cadillac"
4. Gary Numan, "Cars"
5. Arcade Fire, "Keep the Car Running"
6. Guided By Voices, "Motor Away"
7. Tom Waits, "Ol' 55"
8. Robert Johnson, "Terraplane Blues"
9. Tom Petty, "Runnin' Down a Dream"
10. The Jimi Hendrix Experience, "Crosstown Traffic"
11. Wilson Pickett, "Mustang Sally"
12. T-Rex, "Jeepster"
13. Van Halen, "Panama"
14. The Dead Milkmen, "Bitchin' Camaro"
15. Prince, "Little Red Corvette"
16. The Who, "Going Mobile"
17. War, "Low Rider"
18. Howlin' Wolf, "Cadillac Daddy (Mr. Highway Man)"
19. Alice Cooper, "Under My Wheels"
20. The Beach Boys, "I Get Around"
21. The Beatles, "Drive My Car"
22. Chuck Berry, "No Particular Place to Go"
23. Big Star, "Back of a Car"
24. Janis Joplin, "Mercedes Benz"
25. Neil Young, "Long May You Run"

Let the good times roll.

The car song is one of the most celebrated rock traditions, a move that made careers for Chuck Berry, the Beach Boys and Bruce Springsteen, among others.  To help cut this down to 80 minutes, I enforced the one-song-per artist rule. Thus we get "No Particular Place to Go" and "I Get Around," plus the Springsteen quota filled by singer-songwriters who wrote better car songs (Waits, Petty, Young.)

The first track that sprung to mind was "Cars," by honorable one hit wonder Gary Numan, and the obvious Prince, War and Wilson Pickett choices were also too awesome to resist. Of course I also had to include "Highway to Hell" and "Panama," both deservedly canonized yet unappreciated as car jams, as well as the amazing "Your Gonna Get Yours," Chuck D's uncharacteristically materialistic hymn to his 98 Oldsmobile. Maybe Flavor Flav got into his head.

At the risk of alienating both of my readers, I think that blues songs are best heard on mix CDs. Robert Johnson and Howlin' Wolf's talents stand out more next to Tom Petty and Alice Cooper than they do next to shoddily-recorded alternate version demos of the same song three times in a row. I also like the Arcade Fire and Dead Milkmen songs better out of their original context.

I still love the Who and Jimi Hendrix contributions, almost unreasonably, and "Back of a Car," like everything else from the original Big Star records, makes me swoon. #1 Record/Radio City is one of those things that probably gets an advantage if it finds you when you're still young enough to enjoy shaving.

Enjoy the tunes, Sis! Drive safe.