POP REVIEW : SUPER-DUPER HUSKER DU

More pure rock power than 30 heavy-metal concerts . . . more indelible hooks than a barrel full of Monkees . . . able to leap across musical genres in a single bound.

If Husker Du had showed a Clark Kent side Friday at the Variety Arts Center, there would have been no doubt about its identity as Superband. There was, however, nothing mild mannered in this Minneapolis rock trio’s thrilling 80-minute, 25-song set.

In one sequence midway through the show, the band skipped from one song that sounded like some lost Black Sabbath classic to another tune that could have been an Iggy Pop chestnut and then on to a number with a vaguely psychedelic, melodic pop feel.

Yet the Husker dudes never sounded like stylistic dabblers--as they make sure each selection got their familiar wind tunnel treatment. Though the words were often obscured, the shifting blend of joy and menace carried in the singing/howling of drummer Grant Hart and guitarist Bob Mould came through loud and clear.

The amazing thing is that, for all its variety, this show barely scratched the surface of the band’s recorded work, while still leaving the feeling that Husker Du has not even approached its peak.

Opening band Christmas, a Boston-based trio, made an ideal lead-in to the headliner with an approach that at times suggested the eclectic Minutemen, only funnier: One song was jokingly introduced by guitarist-singer Micheal Cudahy as being titled “The Future’s So Bright I Gotta Put Rubber Cement All Over My Face and Stick My Head in a Bucket of Dead Bees.” Worth watching.