Stefan Walters / Staff Photographer

Named after a motorcycle gang from the 1953 Marlon Brando film “The Wild One,” Black Rebel Motorcycle Club knows about fighting. The band lost its original drummer, Nick Jago, after fists literally started swinging in public and in 2004 found itself without a record deal after a disagreement with its label Virgin Records. Virgin felt the leather jackets the band wore were best matched with its heavy rock origins 8212; such as debut hit single “Whatever Happened to My Rock “n’ Roll (punk song)” 8212; while the band expressed a desire to be more experimental and try different genres. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club felt it had more to offer than being just another rock band with one consistent sound; instead it wanted to mix elements of psychedelia, garage, blues and folk. The suits at Virgin were unimpressed, but the band refused to budge; Virgin dropped them.

Watching the band promoting the new album “Beat The Devil’s Tattoo, complete with new female drummer Leah Shapiro, it’s still hard to know who was right.

The band came onstage to rapturous applause and launched straight into a new song called “War Machine,” which featured plenty of heavy reverb and electric guitar but somehow lacked any real punch. It was not until the third song, the classic “Love Burns,” from its debut album, that the crowd really started to get into it. Later on, “Ain’t No Easy Way,” a bluesy acoustic number, proved to be one of the most popular songs of the night. The song also gave audiences some piano and keyboard solos and plenty of harmonica. Sure, it’s clear that BRMC can transcend genres and write a diverse array of songs, but what’s harder to determine is whether that’s really what the fans want to hear. Throughout the band’s set, it’s easy to notice people in the crowd talking amongst themselves or heading for the bar during the more recent songs, then quickly heading back to the mosh pit for the old classics. Maybe that’s partly because of the fact that the set was too long with 24 songs and clocking in at around the two-hour mark. Still, it doesn’t help that the band made almost no effort to engage with the audience whatsoever; there was no stage banter, no introductions, no acknowledgements at all. At times it was hard to know whether the band even realized the crowd was watching.

The hipsters on the balcony seemed unimpressed with most of the new album, but even they couldn’t contain their excitement when the earlier hits were played. One elderly fan, probably in his 60s, stood up and bashed his head in unison with the rest of the crowd, screaming along to “Whatever Happened to My Rock “n’ Roll (punk song)” at the top of his lungs. It’s at these moments 8212; at its most basic heavy rock foundations 8212;that BRMC really seems to be most convincing. The musicians are at their most electric when they’re truly rocking out, fans are jumping along and leather jackets are glistening under the spotlights. Maybe the suits at the record company had a point after all.

For more information, visit www.blackrebelmotorcycleclub.com.