Photo by Audrey Leon

Boston noise-punk legends Mission of Burma played to a packed, rambunctious crowd at the Double Door last Saturday.

The crowd had good reason to be excited; the band was in top form, even joking around with the audience: “If we played all our songs we’d be here for five hours,” drummer Peter Prescott said after a fan yelled out his request for ‘That’s How I Escaped My Certain Fate.’ “Trust me you’d be bored after 20 minutes.”

Mission of Burma began the night with “1001 Pleasant Dreams” from 2006′s The Obliterati. Burma’s set perfectly spanned its entire career, though largely ignoring 1982’s Vs. While the night centered around material from the band’s 2009 album The Sound, The Speed, The Light, its 1981 EP, Signals, Calls, and Marches, was heavily represented with cuts such as “This is not a Photograph,” “Max Ernst,” and “Academy Fight Song.”

The band was in a gracious mood and granted the Chicago crowd two encores of older material, including crowd favorites “That’s How I Escaped My Certain Fate” and “That’s When I Reach For My Revolver.” Bob Weston (of Shellac) came out from behind the shadows to play bass on “Good, Not Great” from The Obliterati, the first song in the second encore. It is hard to imagine certain peers of Mission of Burma doing the same. Quite unlike fellow Bostonians, the Pixies, Mission of Burma even appeared to enjoy each others company on stage.

There was one noticeable difference about Mission of Burma’s Double Door appearance; the sound wasn’t eardrum-shatteringly loud for a group that was once notorious for doing so. In fact, the level was downright reasonable considering the inaudible level at which some bands (*cough* Trail of Dead *cough*) play.

Thirty years after they began the members of Mission of Burma are still as energetic as ever, feeding off the excitement of fans new and old and providing plenty of opportunities to slam dance. Catch them while you still can.

Set List
1001 Pleasant Dreams
Good Cheer
1, 2, 3 Partyy!
Donna Sumeria
Feed
This is not a Photograph
Blunder
Monkey Boy
Possession
2wice
Active in the Yard
Trem Two
One Day We Will Live There
Devotion
Max Ernst
Academy Fight Song

Encore 1
That’s How I Escaped My Certain Fate
New Song

Encore 2
Good, Not Great (with Bob Weston from Shellac on Bass)
That’s When I Reach For My Revolver

Mission of Burma -- “That’s When I Reach for my Revolver” -- Live at the Double Door -- 4/10/2010