‘Old-timers’ JethroTull rock Orono

ORONO – I woke up with a nasty headache on Sunday morning. And, as Ian Anderson so wryly put it, it wasn’t from the cheap chardonnay.

On Saturday night at the Maine Center for the Arts, Anderson and the rest of Jethro Tull proved that after 37 years, they’re not “Too Old to Rock and Roll,” in an ear-splitting, mesmerising show.

Not that there weren’t a few Viagra jokes along the way – courtesy of Anderson, the band’s resident storyteller, court jester and pied piper, who seduced the audience with his electric flute and inspired lyrics.

Tull kicked off the first, “acoustic” act (which wasn’t exactly unplugged) with 1971’s “Life Is a Long Song.” The crowd jumped to its feet, and while the fans eventually sat down, they never let go. Anderson, guitarist Martin Barre, drummer Doane Perry, keyboardist Andrew Giddings and bassist Jonathan Noyce had them at “hello.” Or, as Perry said, “Hello, Bangor.” Close enough.

This was a good, old-fashioned rock show, complete with groupies, bag searches, scalpers and people waiting at the doors, holding cardboard signs that read “Need 1 ticket.” No one took up a patron’s offer of two tickets in exchange for a $1,000 donation to MCA, however.

The crowd – young, old and from all walks of life – was a thing of beauty, and the intimate venue gave Tull lovers a chance to fully appreciate the musical and lyric complexity that has earned the band such a loyal following.

When the audience settled down, Tull launched into a set of “pure, unadulterated, preposterous whimsy.” Old favorites such as “Jack in the Green,” “Slipstream,” and “Mother Goose” mingled with Anderson’s solo pieces and tracks from “The Jethro Tull Christmas Album” in an impressive, relatively quiet first act.

Then, after a 20-minute intermission, they returned, amped up and ready to make the crowd’s ears bleed.

Perry’s drums shook the concert hall. Barre’s electric guitar sang. But Anderson’s gleaming flute stole the show, especially during a solo in “My God.” At 57, his voice may not have quite the roaring bluster that it once did, but man, can he play.

And he’s playful. He paused to snap photos of the audience, joked about Barre’s senior-citizen discounts at Starbucks and irreverently talked world politics – from the Cold War to Clinton.

After the finale – “Aqualung,” of course – they sent out a masked man to dust off the amps, then the band stormed the stage for an encore, wrapping up, appropriately enough, with “Locomotive Breath.”

No way to slow down, indeed.