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In the span of a little over an hour-and-a-half at The State Room on Wednesday night, Jay Farrar and his band Son Volt tore through nearly two dozen songs.

They went back to their roots with songs from "Trace" and back to music's roots with the blues-steeped tracks of the band's new album, "Notes of Blue." They sounded great doing it — the songs are masterfully written, the playlist was mostly rocking and upbeat, the band is tight, the sound was spot on.

Most impressively, Farrar did it without any indication that he either knew or cared there was an audience in front of him.

The aloofness is not new for Son Volt, but it is awkward and off-putting, especially in an intimate venue like The State Room. It felt like the cheers from the crowd when the band broke into fan favorites were just getting sucked into a black hole and the result is something like watching a concert on television.

Look, there's no rule that bands have to acknowledge the crowd, Bands certainly can, and some have, come out and played with their back to an audience, and that's their thing. There's also something to be said with dispensing with the same canned anecdotes and banter that you told last night to another faceless mass of people. If we wanted chatter we'd go see Garrison Keillor, right? We pay for music.

But you could be the best bus driver on the planet and it doesn't do any good if you don't stop and open your doors and bring people with you. Farrar — who really is a perfectly engaging guy, based on my interview with him earlier this month — seemed intent on not only skipping the stops, he seemed like he left his bus parked at a meter that was about to expire.

Musically, Son Volt was on point from the first heavy riffs of "Lost Souls," and on "Static," from the new record. They also ripped into "Buzz and Grind," a cover of a song by Gob Iron, a Farrar side project, and "Damn Shame," a Farrar solo song.

They turned in a lovely version of "The Picture," before playing "Dynamite" and crowd-favorite-turned-singalong "Tear Stained Eye."

And Farrar's nasally emo-country tracks kept coming, from the vintage stuff like "Catching On," "Drown," and "Ten Second News" — which featured a terrific guitar solo by Chris Frame — to the solid renditions of newer tracks, most notably "Promise The World" and "Back Against The Wall." Mark Spencer's pedal steel also weaved in and out, layering in a singing sweetness throughout the night.

After 20 songs and a brief break, the band returned for their first encore, opening with the classic "Windfall," following it up with "Graveyard Shift." Farrar gave a perfunctory acknowledgment to the crowd — "Thanks so much for making it out, you're a great audience" — before playing the Uncle Tupelo throwback "Chickamuauga," taking another brief break and closing out the evening with a cover of Velvet Underground's "What Goes On."

It's hard to complain too much about witnessing so much great songwriting and performances. Maybe expectations were too high. But it could have been a genuinely magical night had Farrar been less a performer and more a participant.

The opener, Sara Cahoone, was a pleasant surprise. She fits into that crowded field of female singer-songwriters, but pulls it off exceptionally well, with heartfelt lyrics and pleasant melodies. She's worth checking out.

Twitter: @RobertGehrke