On Saturday night, the original lineup of Eighties jangle-pop outfit the dB’s (Chris Stamey, Peter Holsapple, Gene Holder and Will Rigby) played NYC for the first time in more than twenty-five years, and the whole bill was laid out as a history lesson: First came the Sneakers, reuniting the pre-dB’s band that brought Stamey and Rigby together, alongside fellow pop whiz Mitch Easter; then came Easter’s own pop-rock trio. And finally, the main event – the dB’s.

The mostly thirty-something crowd arrived unfashionably early for a three-band show, filling out the floor at Bowery Ballroom before the Sneakers took the stage. They should have waited another hour. The Sneakers, who never made much of a dent during their brief late-Seventies run, were enthused but sloppy. Opening with the line, “It’s not like I like you/It’s not like I care,” the five-piece attempted a set of exuberantly cynical pop tunes. But tightly wound power-pop requires a kind of nervy precision that comes with lots of practice and the snap of youth; this was more like grown-up buddies jamming in their suburban basements.

Easter faired a bit better. Sporting a tight guitar/bass/drums trio, he spun through some new songs and older numbers poached from his spiky Eighties band Let’s Active. The crowd ate up the more familiar tuneage and was respectfully appreciative of the rest. Still, if you weren’t already pre-sold on Easter’s resume (both as a musician and co-producer of R.E.M.’s early albums) you probably would’ve headed to the bar for a drink.

The underwhelming opening acts made the dB’s turn even more nostalgic and delightful. Leading off with four songs from their excellent 1981 debut, Stands for Decibels, they tore into “Black and White,” “Dynamite,” “Big Brown Eyes” and “Cycles per Second” like they’d recorded the tracks last week. That they played with such puppyish enthusiasm despite a built-in audience of fans (and nothing to prove) made their set even more precious. Stamey’s and Holsapple’s voices and guitars wound together into perfect packages of twisty love songs, and Holder and Rigby guided the band’s tensile dynamics, keeping every tune in perpetual motion, from Stamey’s impressionistic “Ask for Jill” to Holsapple’s revenge rocker “Amplifier.” Continuing well past midnight, the dB’s rewarded their loyal fans with a stellar collection of songs that transcended mere nostalgic appeal.