I've come to the theory that one of the best ways one can tell whether a band's live performance hints at its overall quality is by watching the band's sound levels. In my experience, many opening bands have a muddled, ugly, over-distorted sound that drowns out the vocals and never reaches a quality level that would compel you to find out more about the band. Really good bands, however, have a defined sound in their live shows. This is true of Luna, who played Friday at the Middle East Downstairs to a sold out crowd. It was a victorious, fun show that played to all of Luna's strengths, maintaining their collective musical vision with a more engaged and immediate sound, while encompassing all the emotional ups and downs that distinguish their tunes.Luna are touring on the back of their seventh album, Rendezvous. Luna has been an incredibly consistent band throughout their career, and this album maintains their unusually high streak of very solid and very melodic albums: ringing chords, New York City-tough romantic lyrics, songs that drift over like sand across the shore. This album adds a hint of extra darkness to the band's quirky, tender images. Lead singer and guitarist Dean Wareham has said in interviews that this was their hardest record to make, and has revealed that this will be their final album. "Speedbumps," one of the album highlights, contains a lyric that points to this dissatisfaction: "I refuse to climb your walls/I don't want to ride your bus/I am tired of all of us." Wareham's lyrics have constantly followed characters drunkenly falling in and out of ardor and "blinded by lovedust," to quote a song on their previous album Romantica in which he sings "never before has there been such a drive to escape these conundrums."

If this is Luna's swan song, then it is fitting that it is a great summation of their career and influences. "Astronaut" is about as loud and rockin' as the biggest songs from Penthouse; massive, delayed guitars swirl in the background, surrounding and cushioning the vocals and chirpy lead guitar. "Malibu Love Nest" invokes Television with its sinewy lead lines, while "Cindy Tastes of Barbeque," with its lovely lyrics and beautiful "doo-doo" chorus harmony, takes one back to the charming haze of Bewitched, by way of the Velvet Underground's self-titled album. There are two songs sung by lead guitarist, Sean Eddy, whose voice is higher and less froggy than Wareham's. "Broken Chair," in particular, successfully combines his steady tones with bassist Britta Phillips' lovely voice. Overall, the album is like one of those confused Wareham male narrators: hopelessly in love, mistaking beauty for reality, wafting among minute romantic situations that uncover some small truths but mostly repeat old inescapable patterns, yet still remain thrilling to slip into.

The show on Friday night included two opening bands, Maplewood and Lockgroove, neither of which were very good or worthy of description, except to say that the Maplewood singer sounded like Alex Chilton and that Lockgroove-I'm pretty sure-are named after a Stereolab song.

Luna went on at 11:30 to a packed house, including devoted fans who had come from as far as Ann Arbor, Michigan to see their favorite band on their farewell tour. The club was dingy, hot and a possible fire hazard in which people were trapped leaning up against each other; it was the perfect venue for a concert. Luna seemed pretty nonchalant when they first came on, revving up with "Slide," a lyrical feast ("You can never give/the finger to the blind") that sounds like it should have been a huge hit back in '93 when it was released on Luna's first album Lunapark. The newer songs from Rendezvous, five of which were played early in the set, sounded a lot more dense and even more assured then they did on the record. "The Owl and the Pussycat," in particular, sounded like a withdrawn paean to love on stage, with moving harmonies from Phillips and Eden.

As the set went on, the band got a lot more relaxed, friendly and even talkative. Wareham, whose face was set into a stony, downward gaze for the first five songs, suddenly started to acknowledge the audience and playfully talked to Eden. Eden proved a constant beacon of entertainment with his odd grunts and facial expressions, looking like Vincent D'Onofrio from the first Men in Black movie. The crowd really got into it during "Sideshow by the Seashore," a live favorite that combines Fellini-esque images with a rolling, cyclical riff, "Lovedust," regarding "candles that light themselves" and creamy air, and "Pup Tent," a sexy, bouncy song revolving around "sneaking a kiss on the fire escape." The best songs of the set, however, were the ones where the band really broke out of their album arrangements and extended them into long, winding guitar passages and dynamic tempo changes that built and built upon themselves. In this respect, "Friendly Advice" from Bewitched and "Black Champagne" from Romantica were the most storming, passionate songs of the main set, finding the band really seducing the audience into their sordid little world.

The band returned for two encores, playing fan-favorite "California" and oldie "Tim to Quit" in the first, sticking to their sing-along arrangements, then stretching out for the Television-inspired 10 minute epic "23 Minutes in Brussels." Originally featuring Tom Verlaine on guitar, the song is possibly the best example of everything Luna has to offer, combining their quirky romantic lyrics with complicated, structured interweaving guitar solos and thunderous drumming, while also opening the band up to experimentation and improvisation. During this song, the band seemed most happy and at ease, a culmination of an excellent band's last hurrah, and great sound levels.