Boston must be a city full of Mountain Goats fans. During the band's performance of "Wild Sage" at Cambridge's Middle East Downstairs, the crowd at the sold-out club maintained a silence so pure that the sound of aluminum cans popping at the bar was clearly audible. Also perceptible were the whispered voices of my fellow concertgoers, who followed along dutifully with every word of the song from the band's melancholy and serene "Get Lonely." Singer John Darnielle's mock-tortured facial expressions and mannerisms were followed intently by all those around me, while Darnielle and bassist Peter Hughes shared knowing smiles throughout the set, basking in the audience's reverence like happy seals.The band, which just announced its upcoming album due in early 2008, consists of longtime fourtracker and former psychiatric nurse John Darnielle and his silent bassist, Peter Hughes.

"[Darnielle is] a very inspiring person for me to have a dialogue with," said John Vanderslice, who co-produced the band's upcoming album, in an interview with the Justice. "I really was an old-school Mountain Goats fan. I'm still a pretty rabid fan of what he's done. J.D. and I have known each other since 1999."

Though Sunday night's show in Northampton, Mass. was cancelled due to "grave family illness" (according to the band's Web site), the Mountain Goats gave an amazing live performance, as they are known to do. When a fan requested the audience favorite "Cubs in Five," Darnielle lectured the audience on his reasons for refusing to play the song, invoking the Boston Red Sox's recent conquest of the American League's Eastern Division title. Then, he and Hughes abruptly launched into the song, playing it through until the end.

Fans craving the live-favorite "No Children," off the band's career-altering Southern gothic divorce drama album, Tallahassee, had to wait until the encore. During the song, Darnielle's voice was at times indiscernible over the audience's shouting voices, singing along. After a full set replete with mid-1990s releases, as well as a few tracks from the new album, Darnielle ended the night with a second encore, wherein he played "Shadow Song" from their 2000 album The Coroner's Gambit.

The Mountain Goats' hand-picked opening act, the Bowerbirds, hail from Darnielle's adopted hometown of Durham, N.C. The trio's pretty but soporific music made it an excellent first act. The band's violinist and token female accordionist harmonized with lead singer Phil Moore, with striking effects. The airy, soft-stringed guitar (Oe la Iron and Wine) and lazy tempo of the Bowerbirds' songs made for a solid set. Most of the band's songs sounded like perfect album-ending tracks: folk-infused lullabies kept interesting with spare but creative instrumentation, but largely lacking memorable lyrics.

Yet The Bowerbirds were no match for Bishop Allen, Vanderslice's opening band at the Middle East Upstairs last Friday night. Bishop Allen, named after a street only a couple of blocks from the venue, played highlights from their first two albums to a sold-out home-town crowd. The band began with "The Same Fire," from the June edition of their monthly EP series (released throughout 2006). The song is a response to the burning of the USS Monitor, a legendary Civil War battleship that the band had commemorated months before on a track from its March EP. The song's bouncy sing-along chorus instantly brought the audience to its feet as co-lead singer Justin Rice arched his eyebrows and tapped his feet clad in disheveled Vans sneakers. Other lead singer Christian Rudder held back, playing a collection of fun instruments, including ukulele and melodica. The band ended with "Flight 180," a track from its new album The Broken String, merging it into old favorite "Eve of Destruction," a reworked version of P.F. Sloan's classic 1965 Vietnam protest song made famous by Barry McGuire.

The band's tour with Vanderslice, which began Sept. 17 in Orlando, comes hot on the heels of both the July release of his latest album, Emerald City, and Vanderslice's recent music blog tour, wherein the artist recorded performances of different songs and gave the videos to popular music blogs such as Chromewaves, You Ain't No Picasso and Stereogum.

"I really like blogs, and I spend a lot of time on music blogs," Vanderslice said. "I wanted to pay back the blogs. [Blogs are] an efficient way to find out about music because they're always directly linking the content. [They're] run by only one person, so there's no editorial process."

As is to be expected in Middle East Upstairs, the band's microphones became disconnected halfway through the show, which began with "Kookabura," off the new album. Just a couple of songs after inviting audience members onstage, the analog king stepped down into the crowd, away from the useless microphones to play "My Old Flame" and a new single, "White Dove," surrounded by concertgoers. The audio was eventually reset, but Vanderslice nonetheless ended the show with an acoustic performance of "Nikki Oh Nikki," from Vanderslice's 2002 album, Life and Death of an American Fourtracker. His violinist and drummer joined him in a small circle in the center of the tiny venue, as did the keyboardist, bringing with him a Fisher Price toy piano from the stage.

Complete with panty-throwing and a short post-show dance party, Friday night's concert provided a heavy dose of adrenaline, standing in stark contrast to Sunday night's soothing transcendence which I had experienced along with the bulk of my fellow concertgoers. This reporter, as well as a number of local music lovers, eagerly awaits the promised return of these two headliners to the Boston area in the spring.