Craig Finn, lead barker in The Hold Steady, spent the better part of the night without his blue, Dancing Bear-adorned Telecaster hanging from his neck. “My New Year’s resolution is to play less guitar,” he quipped during the bridge of fan-favorite “Your Little Hoodrat Friend.” Naturally, with this being a rock show, he broke his promise to muster a small solo.

He then promptly put it back on the stand where it should stay. It’s not because Finn can’t play — see any of his work with Lifter Puller — he’s just so much better stalking around the stage playing up the role of consummate frontman. It’s one of the many things to get used with the 2014 version of the Brooklyn band.

In the 11 years since forming, the quintet has always played into that bar band image, but gone are the days when they are going beer-for-beer with their fans. Cans of Tecate have been replaced with water bottles. The line-up, while in a bit of a flux after the departure of keyboardist Franz Nicolay, has solidified with former Lucero guitarist Steve Selvidge. The group also has shaken off the dust of the tepid Heaven Is Whenever with their recently released Teeth Dreams.

Dreams is a reboot for the band and almost feels like a debut. There’s a palpable sense of energy and excitement in the music that had been missing. While they cherry picked a handful of songs from the new record (“I Hope This Whole Thing Didn’t Frighten You,” “The Ambassador,” “Spinners”) and stuck to the hits, Finn and company spent the night doing what they do best: rocking the everliving hell out of a room.

At this point, you probably know what your going to get at a Hold Steady show: boozy tales of teenage debauchery, nasty guitar licks and a whole bunch of high fives. But they still are able to surprise. Formerly keyboard heavy songs “Stuck Between Stations” and “Stevie Nix” (any songs from Nicolay-era albums, really) have been reworked with guitarists Tad Kubler and Steve Selvidge ping-ponging solos off one another in a distortion fueled pissing contest. The fact they even played a song like “Citrus” — easily the softest song in their catalog — shows that they still have a few tricks left up their road weary sleeves.

It’s definitely not a comeback, a reinvention at the most. The band has been one of the consistently great live bands working today, but for a while it felt like there weren’t many massive nights left. If last night is any indication, that is definitely not the case.