If you blindly walked into the War on Drugs' first show in its two-night stand Monday at First Avenue, you probably would not have guessed it was one of the most buzzed-about, trendier shows on the club's calendar this year. The long-haired, Stratocaster-attacking frontman looked a bit like Deep Purple's Ritchie Blackmore in his heyday. The soft, hazy orange, red and blue stage lights had a mood-setting effect circa 1981, like something out of a Styx video. And the often slick-sounding music, deeply layered with synthesizer and saxophone, at times sounded as if it could've fit the "St. Elmo's Fire" soundtrack stylistically (don't bother looking that one up, kids).

Monday's sold-out show, however, indeed proved to be one of the freshest and most exciting gigs at the club in recent memory. The Philadelphia-based band was never much to look at, and singer/guitarist Adam Granduciel didn't have much to say between songs. His albums are mostly "headphones records," the kind you pop on to zone out to -- a quality that occasionally proved a bit dull in concert, namely during such slower tunes as "Disappearing" and the encore kick-off "Suffering."

The best moments of Monday's 100-minute performance, however, were absolutely engrossing, and for no other reason than the music's dramatic, climactic, crescendoing qualities, when it felt like the guitars, piano and even that low-blowing saxophone were washing into the crowd like a rapidly rising flood of river water.

"An Ocean in Between the Waves," from the new album "Lost in the Dream," was the first of those moments, coming four songs into the set after the very Dylan-like, mellow opener "In Reverse" and the repetitiously rocking, almost kraut-rock like "Baby Missiles." Other such highlights included "Burning" midway through the set -- with a big, breathless finish almost like U2's "Bad" -- and then the pre-encore finale of "Red Eyes" and "Eyes to the Wind." A few of the older tunes also had a similar, gradual but gigantic impact, especially "Come to the City" at the end of the encore, when Granduciel walked off stage first while the rest of the band faded into a droning finish.

Just before the finale, WOD's leader gave the crowd an elegant version of Dylan's "Born in Time" as something special to mark the two-night occasion -- introducing it as "something by one of our good friends from Minnesota." That's about as personable as Granduciel got on Monday, but his performance was nonetheless engaging and memorable.

Tickets are still available to tonight's show, with Chicago's innovative, spacy yet rootsy outfit Califone again serving as the opening act. Granduciel gave us a candid, compelling interview about his new record going into these concerts. Here's the War on Drugs set list from Night One:

In Reverse / Under the Pressure / Baby Missiles / An Ocean in Between the Waves / Disappearing / Best Night / Arms Like Boulders / Burning / Lost in the Dream / Red Eyes / Eyes to the Wind ENCORE: Suffering / Born in Time (Bob Dylan cover) / Come to the City