Hmmmm. To ding a performance by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band for being maybe just a bit too genteel wouldn’t make a lot of sense, would it? So we’ll just say that last night’s not-quite-two-hour concert by the venerated New Orleans jazz outfit’s current lineup at the Barns of Wolf Trap took a while to get cooking. But band and audience finally clicked after intermission, the players eventually convincing the initially staid crowd to rise and follow them in a room-orbiting conga line before mounting the World’s Most Polite Stage Invasion.

In the hour-long first set, the band seemed to be having more fun than the audience. Nothing wrong with that, necessarily, though there probably is something wrong with Preservation Hall Director Ben Jaffe stopping the show for what felt like 15 minutes to introduce each member of the band after they’d barely been on stage for that long. Sure, want to hear about the players – there’s a lot of talent and a lot of history up there – but after they’ve, you know, played a bit, OK?