So much for a lull the weekend after New Year's. All three shows I went to this past weekend were packed to the gills. Even cooler than the sold-out crowds was the fact that the performers I saw came from very different eras -- with a whopping five decades separating the two acts I saw on Friday.

Night Moves (Friday 7th Street Entry): The second band in a hipster-heavy lineup for Buffalo Moon's homecoming party, Night Moves was probably the main reason for the sell-out. The young, vaguely dancey and twangy psychedelic band is keeping up local appearances awaiting U.K. buzzmaker label Domino Records' summer re-release of its self-made debut record. No surprise, the lads are getting better as a result. Many of the songs off their album, "Colored Emotions," featured extra layers of atmospheric slide-guitar and heavier beats. Frontman John Pelant is singing with a little more force and drama in his voice, too, especially evident in "Headlights" and "Cosmic Titties." These guys are ready to take on the main room – which they're booked to do twice in one week two weeks from now.

Gary Burger & the Spectors (Friday, 331 Club): So much for the whole obscure rock legend thing. The singer/guitarist in the Monks – mid-'60s GIs based in Germany whose lone 1966 garage-rock album was reissued to raves in 2009 – Burger had fans lined up outside the door hoping the 331 Club's capacity would miraculously increase in the half-hour before he took the stage. KFAI's "Freewheelin'" host Jackson Buck and his wife Angie Pykonen pulled a record-geek coup in talking Burger into leaving his home in Turtle River, Minn., where he also happens to be mayor.

With his old cohorts in the Spectors as backers (also members of the Conquerors and Floorshakers), Burger sounded a little rusty in the vocal department, but he nailed his freak-plosion guitar parts. He asked the crowd for a "German welcome circa 1966" to get started. Turns out, that's a loud boo. Fans kept booing through the 14-song set, which featured the topical/war-torn "Monk Time" and "Complication" at the start and the more playful, party-centric "Drunken Maria" and "Oh, How to Do Now" later on. "We did have fun, too," Burger noted of the latter tunes. When he thanked KFAI at the end of the set, he also quipped, "Maybe next time they'll book a bigger venue." Makes sense to me.

Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven (Saturday, Fine Line): The common denominator in both bands, singer/songwriter David Lowery, seemed dead-set on highlighting how far apart they are musically. Camper's opening set contrasted some of their most elegant and orchestrated tunes (the opener "All Her Favorite Fruit," "Sweethearts") with the quirkiest and punkiest ("Cowboys From Hollywood" and, of course, "Take the Skinheads Bowling"). The elder band tried out several new songs, including an especially prog-rock/Stonehenge-evoking number that Lowery introduced by saying, "We've always threatened to go on full-on Hobbit rock." The finale cover of "Pictures of Matchstick Man" certainly fit that nerd-rock bill, too.

Lowery symbolically took off his glasses and dropped the geekier elements when he returned to the stage for Cracker. After a shout-out to vets from the 34th Infantry Division Red Bulls in attendance, the band powered through its breakthrough hit "Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now)" and more wry '90s favorites such as "Don't F*** Me Up With Peace and Love," "Mr. Wrong" and "100 Flower Power Maximum." Things turned hardcore country later on with Johnny Hickman's "Lonesome Johnny Blues" and covers of "Reasons to Quit" and "Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother." The encore was then split one song apiece between Camper and Cracker, ending with a hybrid of both bands spinning through the Dead's "Loser." It wasn't a top-tier performance for either group, what with all the oddball elements, but it certainly was fun for everyone having them together on the same night.