“I fucking love Washington, D.C.,” said Old 97’s frontman Rhett Miller on Saturday during their show at the 9:30 Club. “We even got to play the old 9:30 Club, where the rats would greet you in the hallway.”

The beauty of a band with a cadre of records under its belt—especially when each one is brimming with great songs—is that you never know what a setlist will bring. In the case of the Old 97’s, Saturday’s setlist included rarely played “Bel Air,” “Over the Cliff,” and “Old Familiar Steam” from Wreck Your Life, and “Let the Idiot Speak” from Fight Songs, the latter played so hard that frontman Rhett Miller broke a string. The audience was also treated to an above-average number of songs sung by bassist Murry Hammond, who explained that he and Miller first got together while Hammond was living here in Rockville, Md.

Twenty-some odd years later, Miller, Hammond and the rest of the band remain one of the best live shows in rock music.

See photos from the show in the Gallery.