In a set that pulled from his solo work and songs from his old bands The Style Council and The Jam, Paul Weller showed how his style has evolved over many years of music-making last night at 9:30 Club. Armed with a two-drummer band, the Modfather still blends those lines between energetic rock, pop music, and white-boy soul to fashion a lovely sound of bombastic proportions.

Singer-songwriter Matthew Ryan opened the evening, and though he was armed with just an acoustic guitar and harmonica, his sound wasn’t any less enormous. Ryan’s raspy, cigarette-corroded voice tells tales of the human condition with quiet but powerful conviction. As the man standing next to me said, “It’s baffling to me how this guy isn’t a bigger star.”

See photos from both sets in the gallery.