Greta Van Fleet performs at Oakland Arena in Oakland, Calif. on Aug. 8, 2023.

OAKLAND — Before Greta Van Fleet performed Tuesday at Oakland Arena, the rock band’s crew enclosed the stage in a giant curtain over all sides. The point wasn’t total privacy, but mystery.

After the curtain fell, the band was already onstage. The four members soon took their shirts off, walked around barefoot and traded guitar solos on a mirror-sheen catwalk as flames surrounded them. And that was just the first song.

Greta Van Fleet opened with “The Falling Sky.” Giant pillars of flame enveloped the stage that were hot enough to feel from the seats. The band followed it up with “Indigo Streak” and “Lover Leaver, Taker Believer.” The 14-song headlining set focused primarily on the band’s new album, Starcatcher.

Greta Van Fleet performs at Oakland Arena in Oakland, Calif. on Aug. 8, 2023.

Lead guitarist Jake Kiszka strutted up to the edge of the stage for a solo. (He did this for every guitar solo, which occurred during every song). Kiszka rocked his body back and forth on his three-inch heels and made the guitar scream. He bent backward, pumped his fist and even put the guitar behind his head while playing. It helped that he has the virtuoso skill to back up the bravado. If he wasn’t this good, he couldn’t get away with hefting around his stage presence that much.

Greta Van Fleet are as close as you can get to a modern classic rock act. Its whole set hearkened to an age where it was closer to high theater with costumes and makeup. Greta Van Fleet went through several costume changes. Singer Josh Kiszka went from a blue jumpsuit to white, with a messianic cloak. Shirts went on, off, and back on again several times.

Following “Frozen Light,” Danny Wagner performed an extended drum solo while the rest of the band exited the stage. When he finished, the lights cut out for a moment and the rest of the band reappeared on a smaller stage near the back of the room, providing a wonderful view to the cheap seats. Wagner joined his bandmates with a mandolin for an acoustic set including a cover of “Unchained Melody” and folkier renditions of their own songs “Waited All Your Life” and “Black Smoke Rising.”

Greta Van Fleet performs at Oakland Arena in Oakland, Calif. on Aug. 8, 2023.

Returning to the main stage, Greta Van Fleet played “Fate of the Faithful,” “Meeting the Master” and “The Archer.”

Many bands use fog machines and pyrotechnics, drop virtuosic guitar solos on a catwalk, blow kisses to the audience or borrow something from an audience member and use it as a prop (one fan gave Kiszka a necklace, which he wore for the rest of the show in Oakland). But how many bands earnestly do them all at once? Greta Van Fleet performed a show that captured the mythical ethos that many have only ever heard of, but never got the chance to see before rock bands stopped doing it decades ago.

As the show’s opener, Teddy Swims brought an infectious energy to Oakland. Maybe it was his flamboyant, outspoken stage presence. Maybe it was the way he took the mic off its stand and walked it around the stage like a dandy cane. Maybe it was his bright, leopard-print dress shirt. In any case, the singer-songwriter had the attention of early arrivers quickly.

Teddy Swims performs at Oakland Arena in Oakland, Calif. on Aug. 8, 2023.

Teddy Swims played a short set of songs including opener “911,” “What More Can I Say” and “Love For A Minute.”

At one point, he tossed Smucker’s Uncrustable peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to some people in the front row. He introduced one song by explaining the importance of deleting nudes from your phone before your next girlfriend find them.

The set was punctuated by his cover of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin.'” In an audience of classic rock junkies and kids who grew up on their parents’ records, the song proved to be a hit.

Follow photographer Steve Carlson at Instagram.com/SteveCarlsonSF and Twitter.com/SteveCarlsonSF.