The naysayers insist that it’s impossible to make a career playing rock and roll any more. The Dandy Warhols, who kicked off the West Coast leg of their global Distortland Tour in the relative warmth of Vancouver’s Commodore Ballroom Tuesday night, suggest otherwise. Portland’s finest have been doing this for over 20 years now.

The Dandy Warhols’ stoner pop formula has barely deviated over the course of their career. Take a few familiar chords, write a catchy melody around them, add some vocal harmonies and put the entire thing through as many effects units as mechanically possible. Simple, right? But then why isn’t everyone doing it?

The highlights came thick and early. Opener “Be-In” set the stage for what was to come with its droning guitars and rich harmonies. Two songs later, “Get Off” operated at the other end of the Dandy Warhols spectrum, singer-songwriter Courtney Taylor’s blizzard of pop hooks wrapped around deliberately goofy lyrics. “Hot diggety dog” indeed.

“I Love You,” one of the band’s most trance-inducing tracks on record, emerged even fuzzier live, punctuated by a lengthy stoned groove outro that came close to stretching their defrosting crowd’s patience. If the Dandy Warhols have an Achilles Heel that has prevented them from ascending to genuine stardom, it’s their love of the soporific groove.

When the tempo eventually accelerated, the crowd found its communal dancing shoes. “You Are Killing Me” and “We Used To Be Friends” were both perfectly paced floor fillers, the latter greatly improved by the removal of its original electro affectations.

A short Courtney Taylor solo interlude was followed by a rousing rendition of the band’s biggest hit, “Bohemian Like You.” Skewering hipster culture before most of the world even knew what hipsters were, the 2016 version saw keyboard player Zia McCabe conduct and lead the night’s first mass outbreak of pogoing.

“It’s a special time of year,” announced Taylor in one of his rare addresses to the crowd, inquiring, “Are you going to sing along to Christmas Carols?” before the band launched into their uniquely psychedelic version of “Little Drummer Boy.” After punctuating 90 minutes of guitar noise with a dash of seasonal spirit, “Boys Better,” arguably the greatest jewel of the band’s brilliant back catalogue, provided an appropriate conclusion.

Anyone familiar with The Dandy Warhols through their select hits and the superb rockumentary “Dig!” could be forgiven for considering the band as lucky survivors. Certainly, the movie questions their artistic worth, contrasting their commercial success with the no-compromise creative integrity of their troubled friends/rivals in The Brian Jonestown Massacre.

It’s a little more complicated than that. Because while The Dandy Warhols’ longevity was clearly helped by wisely investing their colossal “Bohemian Like You” earnings in themselves, the easily overlooked factor is the simple joyfulness that emanates from their music. Behind the drones and the fuzz this is a band in love with pop pleasure. And in the entire history of music, no one has banged a tambourine on their hip as enthusiastically as Zia McCabe.