Spirited Set by the Pogues at House of Blues

It was like something straight out of “Spinal Tap”: While the House of Blues sound system played a recording by Shane MacGowan on Wednesday, the TV monitors that display information about the music being heard identified the singer as “a former member of the ‘80s band, the Pogues.”

The problem was that not only are the Pogues still quite active in the ‘90s, thank you, but they were also headlining the House of Blues that night. That’s how little respect the Anglo-Irish folk-punk band has gotten since MacGowan left in 1990, taking his besotted barroom mystique--and his catalog of feisty yet touching songs--with him.

Ironically, the group’s spirited performance went a long way in showing that it can get along just fine without its former leader. It has apparently survived several so-so tours and the hit-and-miss material of its latter-day albums, including the recent “Pogue Mahone.”

Founding member Spider Stacy anchored the show with his hoarse singing and combative attitude, and the mix of guitars, mandolin, accordion and tin whistle remains vibrant through a range of hyperjigs, broken-heart ballads and various folk-rock hybrids.

The setting also helped--a smoky club packed with energetic Celtophiles is much more conducive to the spirit than the sedate theaters the band played on its last few times in L.A. The Pogues, ‘90s version, now seem simply a first-rate pub band--even if they used to be so much more.