Taking a pause at the Lobero Theatre on Saturday night during an exuberant version of “Marie Marie,” one of the better-known songs from the catalog of Los Angeles roots rock band The Blasters, Dave Alvin, who wrote this and most of the songs by The Blasters, quipped, “Funny how 28 years ago that caused bloodshed, damage, chairs flying, windows busted, helicopters policing. Now, I don’t see one person dancing. Times have changed.”

Alvin was referring to a riot of sorts during a performance by The Blasters at the same theater all those years ago, which led to the band being banned from Santa Barbara. Similar events around that time got The Blasters banned from San Bernadino and Davis, although this year the mayor of Davis, who is a fan, issued a belated and probably tongue-in-cheek pardon to the band.

For better or worse, there was no riot at the Lobero at this performance, which was the first night of Sings Like Hell’s 30th series. Alvin, whose bandmates this time were called The Guilty Ones, has been part of this series before, including a slot at the first series 14 years ago.

At the show, Alvin teased that Phil, his oft-estranged brother and continuing Blaster, would join him for a duet from Alvin’s new album, Eleven Eleven. When Phil failed to materialize, Alvin joked that it turned out that he had gotten sidetracked when he met up with “some blonde from Ventura that he used to know.” The consolation was the other Blasters song of the evening, “Long White Cadillac,” which Dave noted that he wrote for Phil to sing.

The bulk of the show featured songs from Alvin’s solo career after leaving The Blasters, focusing on the louder and more electric tunes. This included several from the aforementioned Eleven Eleven, namely “Harlan County Line,” which featured some fiery guitar from Alvin and has been used for the FX television show Justify; “Black Rose of Texas,” which is a tribute to fiddler Amy Farris, who had played with Alvin and who committed suicide in 2009; and “Run Conejo Run,” which is a tribute to Chris Gaffney, who also played with Alvin and who died of liver cancer in 2008. Here “Conejo,” which translates to “rabbit,” refers to Gaffney’s nickname from when he grew up in the dusty streets of Tucson.

A couple of the songs reflected on Alvin’s R&B-obsessed formative years: “Ashgrove,” which tells of sneaking into bars to hear old bluesmen play, and “Boss of the Blues,” which tells of hanging out with R&B legend Big Joe Turner. Wow, that must’ve been cool.

Rounding out the program were other solo gems, including “King Of California,” “Fourth of July,” “Every Night About This Time,” which Alvin claimed had been deemed “too country” for George Jones of all people, and “Blue Wing,” which was written by fellow Sings Like Hell alum Tom Russell. For the latter, the band was joined by Fats Kaplin on fiddle, who with his wife Kristi Rose had earlier played an engaging opening set with powerful, versatile vocals from Rose and great fiddle and guitar from Kaplin.

Thank goodness that, even without a pardon from Santa Barbara’s mayor — hey, maybe we should start a petition to help make this happen? — the post-Blasters Alvin continues to receive a warm welcome at the Lobero Theatre. Times may have changed, but great music lives on.

Setlist for Dave Alvin

King of California
Harlan County Line
Boss of the Blues
Black Rose of Texas
Long White Cadillac
Abiline
instrumental
Run Conejo Run
Every Night About This Time
Dry River
Ashgrove
Fourth of July

Encore

Blue Wing
Marie Marie

— Noozhawk contributing writer Jeff Moehlis is a professor of mechanical engineering at UCSB. Upcoming show recommendations, advice from musicians, interviews and more are available on his Web site, music-illuminati.com.