Perhaps the greatest measure of any live performance is how it moves the listener. Technique and musical mastery fall flat without genuine passion, but both are necessary for any great concert. For this reason, it's always been near-impossible to review a Depeche Mode show impartially, because while their strong suits are their musical technique and vocalist David Gahan's consummate showmanship, they've been guilty more than a few times of putting together technically brilliant but emotionally bereft performances.

For the better part of the past two decades, seeing Depeche Mode perform live has required a bit a of a leap of faith on the part of their fans, because songwriter Martin Gore's often-brilliant first-person ruminations on love, lust, weakness, temptation and alienation are hidden behind a musical veneer of almost icy perfection. Often that has meant that the devoted Depeche Mode fan had to take the extra step of extracting the underlying emotions of each song in order to connect with their music.

For many casual fans and newcomers, this has translated to concerts and records that can seem inscrutable, distant, or downright cold, hence the phenomenon of people who "just don't get" the band. The real crime in all of this is that the appeal of their music, which embraces life's profound joy and unspeakable sorrow (sometimes simultaneously), is obscured by its artifice.

After 1998's stately but aloof "Singles" tour, a double-edged sword of a tour that highlighted the band's incredible career but almost seemed to relegate them to the status of a museum exhibit, Depeche Mode have returned, infusing their performances with a consistent, genuine and heartfelt emotion that only seemed to peek out occasionally on prior tours. It's as if they've been reborn and decided to have some fun this time around. Performing a set list that contained twenty-one songs spanning their career from 1986's Black Celebration, to their most recent release, Exciter (Reprise), the band put on one of their most inspired shows in years at New York's Jones Beach Theater on July 3rd.

After "Easy Tiger", a perfunctory instrumental that morphed to a brief instrumental version of their current single, "Dream On", singer David Gahan joined the band on stage to the abrasive strains of "The Dead Of Night", showcasing a vocal style that, while less polished than on prior tours, displayed profoundly more depth and strength. His resonant baritone, coupled with the pounding bass and drums during the song's chorus, made the track an exceptionally effective (if risky) opener, raising the crowd's adrenaline and expectations for the rest of the evening.

Continuing with another new track, "The Sweetest Condition", Gahan and the band slowed in tempo but not intensity. It would be the first of many moments when the band would showcase a rougher, slightly more organic sound, and shift gears without sacrificing the audience's interest.

Following up with two of their most distinctive songs, "Halo" and "Walking In My Shoes", the band displayed a high energy, rawer sound that built upon the promise of the first two songs of the evening, and gave many in the audience the reassurance of older material in the context of an updated sound. The introspective and guitar-heavy "Dream On", given a much-needed shot in the arm thanks to a surprise change in speed midway through the song, worked effectively enough so that the crowd and band were engaged in a chorus call-and-response by song's end. Through it all, Gahan seemed hell-bent on working the crowd into a frenzy, alternating his trademark gyrations with exaggerated Elvis poses. At one point, he beat his chest, almost daring the crowd to match his manic enthusiasm.

Gahan's voice was its most expressive during the dreamy, meandering ballad "When The Body Speaks". Disappointingly, his harsh vocals on the follow-up song, "Waiting For The Night", another slow number featuring both his and songwriter Martin Gore's vocals, detracted from the delicate balance of the song and called attention to themselves.

In what has become something of a Depeche Mode concert tradition, Gore took center stage to showcase two of the evening's most arresting tracks, "Dressed In Black" and "Breathe", both given a rich, torch-song treatment thanks in large part to Gore's emotive, tremolo-laden a voice and sparse but dramatic arrangements. After the mid-tempo "Freelove", a track that, much to its detriment, was unnecessarily drum-heavy, the band remained in high gear for the remainder of their main set, performing six high-energy numbers from their past four albums - "Enjoy The Silence", "I Feel You", the Zephyr mix of "In Your Room", "It's No Good", "I Feel Loved" and "Personal Jesus".

Of these, the standouts were "It's No Good" (assisted by an incredibly clever backing video) and "I Feel Loved", a new track that seemed to instantly catch on with the crowd, propelled by Gahan's near-frantic prowling of the stage and feverish percussion with heavy Afro-Brazilian overtones. Despite their status as crowd favorites, "I Feel You" and "Personal Jesus" seem to be overdue for a makeover -- their status as concert standards has evolved into near-predictability. Nevertheless, the band exited the stage to a well-deserved ovation.

For an encore, the band performed four wildly diverse songs, each showcasing a different aspect of their musical style. The solid but unexceptional "Home", a traditional mid-tempo power ballad, seemed by-the-numbers, despite the heartfelt treatment of Gore's vocals earlier in the evening. Gahan returned to the stage with the epic, percussion-driven "Clean", the closing track from 1990's Violator.

The band closed out the evening with "Black Celebration" from their 1986 album of the same name, and the roof-raising crowd favorite "Never Let Me Down Again".