“You know, I like Chattanooga pretty alright,” he exclaimed halfway into his first-ever Chattanooga visit. “Man, guys, we’re really flattered,” he said upon returning to the stage for an encore.

An unlikely Korean-American jam band front man and axe handler, the power forward-sized Big Head Todd (Todd Park Mohr) towered over his band mates and the crowd, shooting out smiles, waves, sublime vocal tones and incendiary guitar playing for more than two hours. In addition to longtime Monsters Rob Squires on bass and Brian Nevin on drums, Mohr was joined by Jeremy Lawton on keyboards and pedal steel and the soulful supporting vocals of the dynamic Hazel Miller, whose startling vocal chops both bolstered and battled Mohr’s all night long.

The set list was perfect for both the devoted and the unitiated, as the band ripped and slid through hits (“Circle,” “Resignation Superman”) and deeper album cuts (“Vincent of Jersey,” “Monument in Green”), as well as covers of John Lee Hooker’s “Boom Boom” and Eric Clapton’s “Forever Man,” easily the highlight of the evening. As the band played their biggest hit to date, “Bittersweet,” a beach ball—quite possibly the first to ever grace the inside of this charmed venue—was tossed and smacked around by the crowd. Simply put, the evening was both a party and a stellar musical event.

While the crowd was smaller than, say, the Sister Sweetly days, it was still good-sized and enthusiastic. The band’s popularity has been eroded somewhat in recent years due to, among other things, an influx of countless and easily-forgettable indie rock bands—the vast majority of which compensate for their lack of chops with shoegazing and trendy, snotty indifference. Big Head Todd’s confidence and rapport with his audience comes directly from his chops. And while Todd may never again reach the heights he hit a decade ago, chances are more people will still be paying to see him a decade from now than they will any of our current “next big things.” Big Head Todd and The Monsters are not an “important” band, and have never released an “important” album. They are simply a great band who loves what they do and the people that love them.

Minutes after the show, as I was walking down 7th Street on the way to my car, I noticed the hall’s back door burst open and Nevin and Tivoli manager George Parker rushing out to play a desperate game of “Who Can Light Their Cigarette Faster?” I think George won.

After I offered my super-short review (“Great show!”), George gave me a double high five and a “so glad you could make it.”

So was I.

The success of this night bodes well for what George is (thankfully) trying to do. A sell-out for the George Thorogood this Thursday night isn’t out of the question. The George Jones show at the Memorial Auditorium next month will be another winner, and tickets just went on sale for John Prine’s Tivoli show in August. Not even Rickie Lee Jones will be able to get tickets to that one.