The Yellowjackets perform at Riverhouse Jazz at Riverhouse on the Deschutes on Saturday, February 18, 2017. The series concludes with Portland guitarist Dan Balmer fronting three different trios Friday and Saturday. (Joe Kline/Bulletin file photo)

Not unlike their namesake creature, the four musicians in jazz fusion band Yellowjackets are an unassuming bunch — until they sting.

Unless they were there the night before for Yellowjackets’ first Riverhouse Jazz concert, few in the audience Saturday night at Currents restaurant at Riverhouse on the Deschutes probably could have guessed what was to come when the band took the stage. The four players, decked out in street clothes that made them look more like jazz historians than musicians, grinned widely at the crowd as they took their respective places onstage.

And then they started playing. For two sets, the band — founding keyboardist Russell Ferrante, saxophonist Bob Mintzer, drummer Will Kennedy and bassist and newest addition Dane Alderson — kept audience members in the packed house on the edge of their seats. Perhaps it’s hyperbole (or at the least, cliche) to call the performance an explosion, but it’s not far off. By the second set, the band was earning standing ovations after every song — and more than a few mid-tune.

The band tackled the first hour-long set as a slow build, starting with the funk-jazz of “When the Lady Dances,” a fine showcase for Mintzer on tenor. He switched to EWI (electronic wind instrument) for the next piece, “Dewey,” doubling up with Ferrante’s synthesizer to create some haunting overtones — a technique used to great effect throughout the evening.

Alderson and Kennedy, meanwhile, locked in from the first and never let up, sticking one complicated groove after another in between vertigo-inducing time changes. And aside from the music, they were the funnest to watch onstage — Alderson snarled through each note he wrenched from his six-string bass, while the energetic Kennedy looked as if he was struggling to not shoot up out of his drum throne through the ceiling. Both got spotlights in the first set: “Out of Town” climaxed with Kennedy’s jaw-dropping drum solo, and Alderson performed a brilliant solo piece toward the end of the set with help from a looping device.

The band touched on music from throughout its 37-year history, reinterpreting pieces as necessary for this particular lineup. Despite the different eras (and stylistic detours) covered, nothing sounded out of place, with songs such as “Anticipation” from last year’s “Cohearance” album fitting seamlessly with older Yellowjackets songs such as “Mofongo” or “Revelation.” Every once in a while, Ferrante or Mintzer would rip into a solo, and their interplay only got more intense in the second set.

There was no energy drop from the first set into the second. After a half-hour intermission, the band returned and got straight to work, not letting up until the aforementioned “Revelation.” The song’s R&B/soul groove put a nice bow on the evening, ending the show with another massive, improvised climax that the musicians didn’t seem to want to end.

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