Martin Gore at the S.B. Contemporary Arts Forum

Sometimes when the giving spirit meets the distilled spirit, great things happen. Such was the case at the Contemporary Arts Forum last Saturday, where partygoers convened with New Noise and Notes for Notes to raise funds for music-savvy youth in the community. With a flawlessly presented space to explore, a menagerie of area music artifacts up for auction, and electro-industrial mastermind Martin Gore on deejay duty, minds and bodies were soon captive to the holiday spirit— and lots of glow sticks.

First up on the decks was Matty Matt, who provided a solid set of club hits as a mishmash of guests began to filter through. Eventually, the excitement gave way to Gore himself — or, rather, a dense fog that was presumed to contain the Depeche Mode guitarist. There was no mistaking the heavy, pounding rhythms of his signature industrial style, though, and sure enough, the deejay lit a fire right under the whole soirée as soon as vision was restored to the room. Glow sticks were raised, troubles were forgotten, and the giving spirit revealed its dance-party dark side. Highlights from the set included the forthcoming track “Spock” by VCMG, the techno duo consisting of Depeche Mode cofounders Gore and Vincent Clarke, as well as an absolutely floor-killing remix of “Man Made Machine,” a collaborative single Gore produced with Motor earlier this year. If every charity event could boast a dance floor as fiendishly sexy as last Saturday’s, poverty would almost certainly be extinct.