You’d never guess Alabama Shakes is only two albums into its career from the performance the band put on at Les Schwab Amphitheater on Friday night.

Heck, there are bands that have been around for decades that will probably never touch the level of performing acumen the ’Shakes are at now. The Athens, Alabama, blues-rock juggernaut — fronted by inimitable frontwoman Brittany Howard — held the sold-out crowd captive and captivated for 90-plus minutes, bleeding each note out onto the stage and into the chilly night. LSA’s season may have just peaked, and it has only just begun.

From the first two songs it was clear the audience was in for something special. The quartet — augmented by a posse of backing vocalists and two keyboardists — sucked the audience in with a crackling version of “Future People,” off last year’s phenomenal “Sound & Color” record. It was fully firing on all cylinders by the next song, “Dunes” (no lengthy warm-up here), which gave Howard her first chance to wail not only vocally, but instrumentally.

Just from the stage setup, it was obvious Howard was the star of the show. The other instrumentalists stood behind her in a tight line while she channeled Aretha and Otis Redding on such soulful ragers as “Rise to the Sun” and the aggressive “Heartbreaker.” At other times she was Hendrix reincarnated, punctuating the thick grooves with gritty, grimy guitar on “I Ain’t the Same,” “Shoegaze” and especially main set closer “Gemini.”

But Alabama Shakes is a damn good band all around, and ignoring the other instrumentalists’ contributions would be downright criminal. The biggest kudos go to bassist Zac Cockrell and drummer Steve Johnson, perhaps modern R&B’s best rhythm section. “The Greatest” provided, well, the greatest example of their acumen, as they guided the group from raging punk to pretty calypso rhythms and back again without losing an ounce of muscle. Meanwhile, second guitarist Heath Fogg perfectly complemented Howard’s more biting tones, weaving dense melodies and chords throughout early hits “Hold On” and “Always Alright.”

Fans got a healthy dose of both the band’s albums, including a hefty 10 of the 12 tracks from “Sound & Color.” The ramp-up to end the main set couldn’t have been more perfect: beginning with the stop-start crunch of “Gimme All Your Love,” segueing into an emotional “Don’t Wanna Fight” and ending with the aforementioned “Gemini,” perhaps the band’s darkest (bordering on downright creepy) song. The band returned for a stellar three-song encore that included “Sound & Color’s” title track, though it couldn’t beat the original set ending’s sheer power.

Philadelphia’s Hop Along, who were just in town to open for Dr. Dog at the Midtown Ballroom in February, returned to open this show, taking the stage at 6:30 p.m. and pumping the crowd up with an angry, vocal chord-shredding set. The quartet’s undisciplined rage stood in sharp contrast to Alabama Shakes’ more disciplined, muscular attack, but the pairing worked well nonetheless.

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