The uncool thing about you guys smoking weed,” smiled Death From Above 1979 bassist Jesse Keeler, addressing the crowd midway through the band’s concert at Vancouver’s Vogue Theatre last night, “is that we can smell it but can’t have any.”

“If anyone has mushrooms on them,” added singer and drummer Sebastien Grainger, “please throw them into my mouth.”

All of which gives the impression that the reformed Toronto duo, enjoying their second wave of Canadian popularity after their initial emergence as an international force in the early ’00s, delivered a party-friendly stroll down nostalgia lane on the first of their two nights micro-residency on Vancouver’s Granville Street. Far from it. Exchanges with the crowd were scarce and smiles between Keeler and Grainger were even rarer. In their place the band delivered a taught hour of fuzz and howls, sampled loops of dialogue regularly filling the spaces between the furiously unleashed songs.

IN PICTURES: Resurgent DFA 1979 rock out at Vogue Theatre

The band’s lack of interaction didn’t bother the Vogue crowd in the slightest. They’d come for the noise, not the conversation. A small but enthusiastic most pit exploded into life during “Right On, Frankenstein,” growing in size and agitation as Keeler threw himself around the stage, brandishing his see-through bass as if it had a mind of its own.

Considering that the entire band is essentially what would once be considered a rhythm section, Death From Above 1979’s lack of groove takes some getting used to. It’s all about riffs; Keeler’s 747 engine tone paired with the unfussy drumming of Grainger.

The audio onslaught slowed down a touch during “White Is Red” before erupting in fury once again with recent single “Trainwreck 1979” and a rendition of “Crystal Ball” that saw Keeler putting aside the bass to crank out pained wails from an innocent keyboard.

Understandably, with such a limited number of hands, feet and mouths on stage, Death From Above 1979’s sonic palate soon revealed its limitations. Unlike duos like, let’s say, The White Stripes or Royal Blood, who use their lack of instrumentation to cut straight the core of their songs, the Death From Above 1979 musical aesthetic remains unblemished by traditional concepts of melody.

It was hard to see the exact identity of the stage invader that heralded the encore before being chased off by security. Although from a distance it looked like Vancouver rapper K-OS, a deduction echoed by Grainger’s funniest comment of the night, “Don’t hurt him! He’s a celebrity!”

The crowd was suitably inspired by the rule breaking, “Romantic Rights” generating the biggest mosh pit of the evening, before Grainger poured water over his drum kit, sending spray upwards against a backlit strobe, the biggest concession to the traditional concept of rock and roll performance he’d made all evening.

The most exhilarating moments of the evening were actually delivered by support band Metz. The Toronto trio channelled the ghost of Kurt Cobain with a collection of radio-unfriendly riffs echoing the finest moments of pre-Nevermind Nirvana. In short: crunchy, hostile and fantastic.

Death From Above 1979 play The Commodore Ballroom tonight.