Ocasek drives the retooled Cars

After 24 years in mothballs, frontman Ric Ocasek revved up the Cars for a 10-city test drive that visited sold-out First Avenue Tuesday night.

You don't need to be a rock historian or a mechanic to know that Ocasek blows live. He loves to tinker in the garage but not take to the road.

That was obvious at First Avenue. One of rock's first shoe gazers of the late 1970s (although he always had pretty cool shoes), Ocasek did not break a sweat or a smile. The Ichabod Crane-like figure with a black moptop and dark glasses was expressionlees and motionless. He didn't even tap his foot as he sang with all the emotion of a spare tire.

Of course, with the Cars, Ocasek elevated irony to an art form before anyone heard of "Seinfeld." He's all about art, not heart. He's about being self-consciously cool without the joy of, say, Talking Heads, rock contemporaries who also mixed new-wave with art-rock.

However, something happened to Ocasek during Tuesday's 10th song, the 1984 hit "You Might Think." He spotted a couple of signs held by some young women pressed against the stage. He smiled at them as Elliott Easton took a quick guitar solo. "You might think I'm delirious," Ocasek sang with his deadpan voice.

Even if he didn't get rock 'n' roll delirious like the sell-out crowd did, Ocasek, 62, did loosen up and threaten to finally shift out of first gear. "Sad Song," a new number from this year's comeback album "Moves Like This," was an ebullient rocker -- happy music with sad lyrics -- with a rip-roaring Easton solo. Suddenly, Ocasek seemed to be having so much fun -- for him -- that he tapped his foot to "Heartbeat City," and then he was singing emphatically -- practically shouting for him -- during "Let's Go" as the crowd bellowed back "I like the nightlife baby." The crowd may have anticipated this reunion more than the band, which broke up in 1988. Bassist/co-lead singer Ben Orr died of cancer in 2000. While Ocasek recorded several solo albums and produced such younger bands as Weezer and No Doubt, Easton and keyboardist Greg Hawkes formed the New Cars in 2006 with Todd Rundgren, which went over like a four-car pileup. Last year, Ocasek had some new songs and invited the surviving Cars to record an album, which sounds like vintage Cars.

Sonically, this retooled quartet was satisfying even though the bass and some drum parts were recorded. The Cars weren't as wild fun as Devo at the Minnesota Zoo last year or as invigorating as Duran Duran last month at Epic nightclub. But the encore of "Just What I Needed" was almost rock 'n' roll exciting, and the Cars finally became a let-my-hair-down rock band on the unplanned finale "You're All I've Got Tonight." Hawkes vamped on the keys, Easton took extended solos and Ocasek smiled a few times. After he praised the crowd, blew a kiss and flashed a peace sign, it became clear that the Cars' tinkerer actually enjoyed being the driver tonight.