You’d think we’d have learned our lesson by now. Just because well-read blogs and overzealous Brooklyn tweeters proclaim bands the next big thing does not make it so. Having lots of friends four hours north might get a band a lot of buzz, but eventually they’re going to tour, and touring is when you find out just how capable a band really is.

Cymbals Eat Guitars, headlining at the Rock and Roll Hotel Saturday, initially seemed like they were going to be another disappointment. Singer Joseph D’Agostino was unable to keep his voice anything higher than hoarse, and the muddy guitar sound on their moody new tune, “Definite Darkness,” seemed like a cover for lack of capability. But then they surprised us. Their moodiness and muddiness managed to turn into keyboard-driven pop songs on a dime; slow burners easily gave way to intense bouts of guitar shredding, often with no warning. It was as if they’d taken the joltingly loud-soft-loud dynamics of post rock and applied them to pop songs. This ability to turn illogical structures into accessible sing-a-longs was the most impressive part of the night, and it seemed a shame that there were fewer diehards present for it.