Ash, Bravery meet in the ‘80s

As we move through the mid-’80s, it’s great that two seemingly disparate bands such as Irish power-pop quartet Ash and New York post-punkers the Bravery can tour together successfully. Oh, wait. It’s not the ‘80s? It’s getting hard to tell with all the references to that era in current rock bands, including these two as they co-headlined the Troubadour for the first of two nights Saturday.

Though they have distinctly different takes on happenings from 20 years ago, there was an odd meeting point Saturday. Ash frontman Tim Wheeler dedicated the pounding “Clones” to Stephen Pearcy of onetime Troubadour hair-metal denizen Ratt, with little or no apparent irony. Later, the Bravery singer Sam Endicott prefaced his band’s hardest rocker, “Swollen Summer,” by saying how proud he was to be playing “the birthplace of Motley Crue,” adding, “I don’t mean that sarcastically.”

Ash, a veteran band with a huge following in Europe, injected its music with metal thunder to great effect, stressing the power side of its equation behind Wheeler’s and Charlotte Hatherly’s blazing guitars. But it was metal for Buzzcocks and Undertones fans -- giddy, smart, optimistic in outlook and unpretentiously fresh despite the backward glancing from a band that has clearly hit its stride.

The Bravery’s stride is not really its own. Its set, drawn from its recent debut album, “The Bravery,” owed much to ‘80s icons New Order and the Cure, a mix of clipped quasi-disco rhythms, burbling synthesizer lines and overwrought vocals rarely distinct from other young bands such as the Killers.

Though the music was rougher and tougher than on the album, it was still too groomed. It’s all good fun today, but will anyone care in 20 years, or five?