There are good bands, and there are pros. Before that word sends you running to hide in your Slanted and Enchanted cave, go check out the Long Winters. John Roderick's Seattle outfit are pros in the best sense of the word – affable, even hilarious indie rockers that seem born to take their word-stuffed pop songs on the road.

The Winters came on stage a little late last night at the Rock and Roll Hotel, and Roderick promptly announced, "We're a man down for a minute, one of our guys ran across the street to get cigarettes. So we're just going to play a little blues in E." The three remaining members then banged out a couple ironic minutes of a standard blues progression, before the last band member came back, and Roderick promised "to play indie rock from now on." And rock they did, at least for the show's opening portion. Opener "Teaspoon" missed the triumphant horns of the recorded version, but compensated with an unexpected but healthy swagger. "Carparts" – from their debut, The Worst You Can Do is Harm – may have been the night's highlight. It's an indie rock pop song in the simplest way, with driving, distorted guitars. But Roderick's songwriting has unconventional twists, and here backup vocals pop up unexpectedly in the middle of verses.

An extended period of requests came next, with "Pushover" from their latest Putting the Days to Bed followed by fan favorite "Shapes". The song slowed pace to mid-tempo and the rich, melodic guitar interplay during the bridge was superb. From there things slowed down even more as Roderick moved to piano for a few tunes, including "Commander Thinks Aloud", their own kind of "Space Oddity" replete with plodding keys and buzzing laptop effects.

More crowd-pleasers – like the vaguely Counting Crows-ish "Cinnamon"– followed, the band in full force, breaking a good sweat and smiling the whole time. More pleasing was that Roderick was in rare form, belting out each carefully-annunciated word to the back of the Rock and Roll Hotel and engaging in terrifically witty banter between songs. And even more pleasing, the sound at the RnR was crisp and clear enough to catch bassist Eric Corson’s wonderful vocal harmony parts and jack-of-all-trades Mike Squires's synth flourishes and laptop squiggles. In other words, it was a night of well-written, blue-blooded indie rock, played with energy and enthusiasm. By the time the band got to that terrific, shouted chorus in punkish closer "It’s a Departure" ("Only the good old days!"), the crowd had been fully won over by one of the most satisfying sets we’ve seen this year.

Are the Long Winters just a good rock band? Are they great? Something tells us they don’t really care: they’d just like to be your favorite.