Depeche Mode Grows Up--but Not the Crowd : Pop Music: Food fights in the upper decks don’t undermine the synthesizer band’s <i> Angst</i> -themed show at Dodger Stadium.

Holden Caulfield stood up at Dodger Stadium on Saturday and swore an oath about “deciding in your youth on a policy of truth.” But Holden came in the guise of Depeche Mode singer Dave Gahan, a center fielder in the wry. In the first of two sold-out shows at the stadium, Gahan danced exuberantly to dark-toned music amid stage smoke and flashy lighting, stating his pledge in front of about 50,000 screaming fans.

An incongruous setting for such a personal--if universal--act of expression? Perhaps. But as Gahan (and most of the 50,000) sang, “Everything counts in large amounts.”

As media becomes ever more mass, adolescent anguish requires, even demands, such rituals for validation. Basically, that’s the impetus and history of rock ‘n’ roll itself, and Depeche Mode may well be the prime validator for this generation.

At times, though, the setting threatened to undermine this black celebration in Dodger Blue. It’s not just that the stadium is a lousy place to see a concert, its layout enhancing the distancing nature inherent in such large-scale events.

Most disturbing was the renewal of what has become a tradition at large outdoor concerts: the throwing of full soft-drink cups and other objects from the upper decks onto the people below. Such behavior is hardly appropriate with a band that is trying to encourage honesty and respect.

That such behavior didn’t undermine the show is credit to both the band and the majority of its fans. Maybe it takes the presence of a minority that doesn’t get it to heighten appreciation for those who do. And Depeche--which refused to take the stage until the food fight stopped--is showing encouraging signs of maturity in its music and performance.

Gahan has developed into a very entertaining frontman, his gyrations neither detracting from the Angst theme nor burdening it with too much irony. And there were even new and encouraging elements of sensuality and humor in the arty film clips that accompanied certain songs.

The food fight did weaken what should have been an auspicious appearance of second- billed band Electronic, whose set incorporated the first-ever U.S. stage performance of the Pet Shop Boys. Electronic’s pleasant but less-than-compelling modern dance music, a collaboration between New Order singer Bernard Sumner and ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, with assistance from Pet Shoppers Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, had trouble competing with the crowd disturbances for attention. And the much-anticipated appearance of Tennant and Lowe boiled down to just two songs, neither of them Pet Shop numbers.

Nitzer Ebb opened the evening with 40 minutes of unpleasant, beat-heavy industrial disco. A little goes a long way, or as one person was heard to say when the trio started its fourth or fifth song: “Haven’t we heard this one already?”