Notorious for its politically charged, punk- and folk-influenced music, Against Me! brought a more solidified rock sound to New Wave, its major-label debut released in July. One might wonder whether this slight shift would disappoint a live audience overflowing with diehard fans. With their recent Electric Factory performance, Tom Gabel and Co. answered that question by sticking it to the man with as much liveliness and passion as ever.

The venue was filled with a thick fog of excitement when Against Me! finally took the stage. The four band members, each sporting a black shirt in a different style, emerged from the wings, serenaded by the crowd’s wild chants. They picked up their instruments and stood in front of the same colossal black-and-white tiger icon that graces the cover of New Wave. Wasting no time, they rocketed into the album’s title track about mainstream media rebellion. During other new songs such as “Up The Cuts” and “Americans Abroad,” the teenager-driven mosh pit spread with every fevered strum of Gabel’s guitar. But when 2005’s Searching For A Former Clarity favorite “From Her Lips To God’s Ears” filled the warehouse-style venue, the whole place seemed to pogo. During the aptly titled “The Energizer,” guitarist James Bowman, with a look of deep concentration on his face, held the single longest note of the night, and bassist Andrew Seward moved with a mesmerizing force that the enthusiastic crowd-surfers absorbed with glee. As the pit swayed through the catchy poignancy of New Wave single “Thrash Unreal,” the energy calmed, but smiles were seen all the way to the back door as a camaraderie circulated during this emotion-stirring song. Seward and drummer Warren Oakes played together with fiery enjoyment, and Oakes wore the genuine grin of a teenager playing his first live show.

The boys and the crowd got their second wind during Searching For A Former Clarity’s pulsating “Don’t Lose Touch,” during which Gabel’s celebrated vocal grit tore up the microphone. Definitely sweaty but certainly not tired, the band let loose on stage, so much that Seward needed a stretch and a swig of beer afterwards. The most powerful part of the show came during the truly riotous performance of New Wave’s “White People For Peace.” Every 15-year-old and 30-something punk at heart had their fists clenched and thrust high in the air, fervently pounding toward the stage as the band lashed out on their instruments. Every time the band barked “PROTEST SONGS!” the ceiling could have burst open from the flush of collective power.

The set ended with “The Ocean,” the intense and trancelike final track off New Wave, during which Gabel and Bowman’s throaty harmonies thickened the song’s gray sound. The band moved through the breakdown with diminishing volume before Gabel suddenly spiraled into an epic guitar solo before the big finish. The hanging tiger emitted an eerie red glow as the band appreciatively acknowledged the audience and meandered off stage.

After the crowd spent a few minutes pleading for an encore, Gabel returned to the stage alone with his acoustic guitar, reminiscent of his novice days as a one-man show. He began strumming the notes of Reinventing Axl Rose’s “Baby, I’m An Anarchist,” to which the crowd went crazy and basically sang the lyrics for him, lighters in hand. The rest of the band returned for a couple more songs from its earlier days, including the Crime EP’s “What We Worked For.” The band plunged headfirst into the night’s encore and left the crowd clapping and cheering after Gabel’s furious strumming broke one of his guitar strings. To paraphrase a lyric from “What We Worked For,” Against Me! really did give them hell.

—Kathleen Hager