They partied like it was 1981 on Wednesday night, June 25, at Detroit’s Masonic Temple Theatre.

That was the year Human League and Soft Cell released their breakthrough hits — “Don’t You Want Me” and “Tainted Love,” respectively — and that Alison Moyet launched Yazoo with Depeche Mode’s Vince Clarke. The three helped bring post-disco synth-pop to the mainstream fore, helped in no small part by the burgeoning MTV — the “golden days” according to Human League frontman Phil Oakey.

So a small — two-thirds full is a generous estimate — but engaged crowd turned out a Masonic to bathe in that particular era of nostalgia; Human League’s Susan Ann Sulley even commented that, “We don’t usually get such a lively crowd on a Wednesday.” And all three of the British acts on the Generations Tour showed that their chops remained intact and that the synthesizer-forward songs, once thought to be ephemeral, have indeed stood the proverbial test of time.

The black-clad Moyet has enjoyed a strong, if episodic, solo career since Yazoo split in 1983, releasing 10 albums of her own including 2024’s “Key.” She touched on those years, including “Love Resurrection” and the Grammy Award-nominated “It Won’t Be Long,” but, fitting the occasion, Yazoo was the primary focus of her 40-minute set, with six of 10 songs including the swoony “Only You” and the propulsive “Situation,” “Don’t Go“ and “Nobody’s Diary.”

Soft Cell’s 40 minutes, meanwhile, could have been maudlin after the death of co-founder David Ball last October at the age of 66. But vocalist Marc Almond made it a celebration, briefly mentioning Ball’s passing early on but mostly making a case for a potent catalog the duo created beyond the “Tainted Love” juggernaut. The 11-song set also had some local flavor to it; the quartet dropped snippets of Rochester-raised Madonna’s “Holiday” and “Into the Groove” into the opening “Memorabilia” and covered Was (Not Was)’ “Out Come the Freaks,” one of two songs, including the title track, that the group previewed from its upcoming “Danceteria” album, due out Sept. 25.

And, per usual, “Tainted Love” — originally released by Gloria Jones in 1965 — morphed into “Where Did Our Love Go?,” with Almond saluting Motown and the Supremes as he led the Masonic crowd through an enthusiastic singalong.

Human League, meanwhile, was back in the metro area for the first time since 2008 and covered a great deal of ground during its 70 minutes on stage — including eight different looks for Oakey, ranging from an angular, Bowie-esque jacket during the first couple of songs to a pale blue suit mid-show and a dramatic cape covering during the encore. (Sulley and Joanne Catherall’s changes were more minimal). That gave the 14-song performance a bit of theatrical flair — as did the extensive video production and the double keytars carried by Ben Smith and Nick Banks, with Rob Barton on a minimalist electronic drum kit.

Human League focused, not surprisingly, on its now 40-year-old “Dare” album, both hits (“Love Action (I Believe in Love)”) and deep cuts such as the show-opening “The Sound of the Crowd,” “Seconds” and “The Things Dreams Are Made Of.” And an extended intro to “Don’t You Want Me” had the crowd singing the first verse and chorus before Oakey, Sulley and Catherall hit their parts.

The group touched on other hits as well, including “Mirror Man,” “Fascination” and the chart-topping “Human” (accompanied for some reason by a video of jellyfish). Those came along less-celebrated sons such as “Louise,” “One Man in My Heart,” “Tell Me When” and being boiled, while Banks strapped on a guitar during “The Lebanon” and a show-ending rendition of “Together in Electric Dreams,” Oakey’s 1984 collaboration with Giorgio Moroder that capped the night with its reprise “We’ll always be together.”

It was an apt sentiment to close things on Wednesday. The songs were all decades old, but they’re strong enough to span the, well, Generations, as part of the pop culture lexicon.