So, Mike, really: What did take you so long to play in Bend?

Suicidal Tendencies frontman Mike Muir posed the question, half-joking, during an interview with GO! Magazine a few weeks before the band’s nearly sold-out Bend debut at the Midtown Ballroom on Wednesday. But it bore repeating while witnessing the onslaught Muir and his thrash acolytes brought upon Central Oregon’s punk-rock masses — a lean and mean 70 minutes that drew heavily from the band’s classic ’80s and early ’90s eras.

As Muir himself put it early in the set: “They told me, ‘You know it’s a small town, right?’ Well it’s gonna be big Suicidal up in here!”

The Bend date and Thursday’s show at the Showbox in Seattle were the only headlining dates the thrash crossover titans played on its current tour supporting Megadeth. Muir and company certainly made the most of it here, never letting up from set opener “You Can’t Bring Me Down” to the frantic encore “Institutionalized.”

It helps when that company includes another thrash titan, former and founding Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo. It was no accident Lombardo’s tall drum riser made him the most visible person onstage aside from Muir. And Lombardo lived up to his legend while adding to another, perfectly blending in on songs such as “Trip at the Brain,” “War Inside My Head” and a thundering version of “I Saw Your Mommy.” But every once in a while he threw in something — a lightning-fast snare roll, some of his famous double-bass work — as a reminder of who we were watching.

But even without Lombardo, ST always brings out the best musicians in the business (as former ST ragers Robert Trujillo, Brooks Wackerman, Dave Hidalgo, Jimmy DeGrasso and a laundry list of others make abundantly clear). Longtime guitarist Dean Pleasants was the other towering instrumental giant onstage — his solos on the aforementioned “War Inside My Head” and especially the demented runs on “Possessed to Skate” struck the right balance between tasteful phrasing and pyrotechnic insanity. Bass newbie Ra Díaz also deserves special mention — his thundering work came through clearest on “Send Me Your Money” as the rest of the band dropped out, allowing him to carry the massive groove.

But the focus, clearly, was on Muir. The singer prowled the sides of the stage between songs like a prizefighter waiting on the ropes. Whenever the band lurched into one of its ponderous hardcore grooves, he jumped into the ring, running to and fro, arms raised and moving as if he were a malfunctioning marionette. His banter struck a balance between encouraging friend and proselytizing preacher — this is about the only time you’ll hear the phrase “Suicidal Family” in a positive, indeed uplifting, context.

But in the end, it all goes back to the energy, and the playing. Another way to view this show is as an instructional course in what every hardcore band since the late ’80s has forgotten to do — namely, develop a unique sound and then play the hell out of it. ST rose to the top of the hardcore heap in the ’80s by doing just that, and its clear from this stellar performance that Muir will continue to follow his twisted vision until he drops.

Finally, props to local openers No Cash Value, whose snotty, SoCal-influenced skate punk provided a perfect ramp-up to the snarling main event.

— Reporter: 541-617-7814, bmcelhiney@bendbulletin.com