It's a Tuesday night. It's 25 degrees out and dropping. There's just been a mellow set of most-recent--as opposed to old-favorite--songs. You could almost excuse the people who headed for the exits, say, an hour and a half into the Badly Drawn Boy [ tickets ] show at the 9:30 Club.

But who knew it would be about song 15 when Damon Gough, that "Boy," would really get going?

And, oh, what those early departed ended up missing: Funkier, sometimes country-fied, takes on his best songs, stirring piano with a full band booming behind him, big love for the crowd that finally stood up and returned it, tarted-up-but-earnest '80s-pop covers, and just a great performer who was having a hell of a time and who didn't want to leave.

It was like an intentional reward for the devoted, the patient. The Manchester, England-born Gough, especially in his early career, has often caught flack for his plotless, off-the-cuff prattling: breaking up songs with long stories, musings, wandering around and intermittent Springsteen covers, sometimes leaving his band looking as confused as anyone as to what would come next.

Last night (3/6), he launched into the show seeming maybe chastened, maybe just mature, dutifully playing solid, if not effervescent versions of tunes from his 2006 album, "Born in the U.K" (yes, again in homage to the Boss), with little banter, even noting, "I can't interrupt as much as I'd like to." The band left him for a little solo-acoustic tenderness--notably the sweet and sad "A Minor Incident," from the film soundtrack he penned, "About a Boy"--and then returned more vibrantly for a stellar "The Shining" and "Once Around the Block," both from Gough's first and much-loved album, "The Hour of Bewilderbeast."

Then, something happened. Gough left the stage, the band happily riffed on the start of the "U.K." song "The Long Way Round," and when he returned, copping to taking a smoke break, he seemed to jump into action. The ad-libbing and song explanation started to come out. By "All Possibilities," from his third album, "Have You Fed the Fish?" he was reaching into the audience and grabbing hands. Two songs later, he was doing full-on '70s singer/songwriter rock (think Harry Chapin or Jackson Browne) with "Walk You Home Tonight," then a few lines of a heartfelt "Like a Virgin" into the "About a Boy" standout, "Silent Sigh." An a capella crowd version of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" introduced two unabashed love songs from the last album: "Promises," and an island-music-tinged "One Last Dance"--dedicated, Gough said, to "anyone with soul in their blood."

At the encore, a crowd noticeably thinned but energized actually shouted requests for stories along with the songs. Gough obliged, bringing on a Santa Claus fable for "Donna and Blitzen," then a jam of "Cause a Rockslide" and a surprise Smiths cover, "Back to the Old House." But it was the last two songs, both from "Bewilderbeast" that capped it all: "Pissing in the Wind," the simple-starting tune that becomes a rocker, with Gough plaintively crooning "Just give me something/I'll take nothing," all twanged-up and fun; and the piano-only "Magic in the Air."

This kind of finale may be a new lesson in rock-show attendance. So it's Tuesday and stupid-cold. And the concert might have smoke breaks, and waiting around, and some over-explanation--like, oh, saying a song is about not worrying about the way things used to be, and then the song is called "The Way Things Used to Be." That just makes the less music-endurance-hearty people in the crowd go home early. And you get the grand prize of an unimpeded view, an artist with great songs and no reason to leave, and a perfect little concert in the end.