Manchester Orchestra performs at the Masonic in San Francisco on July 18, 2023. Courtesy Ed Davis.

SAN FRANCISCO — Midway through an intense performance, Andy Hull, lead singer and guitarist of Manchester Orchestra, stopped to let the audience take over the chorus of “The Gold.” The band dropped out, the lights fell on the crowd, and the hall echoed with the voices of the crowd singing, “I believed you were crazy/ You believed that you loved me.” There was a moment of transcendent stillness. The band then picked up right where it’d left off: with an epic guitar riff.

“We’re Manchester Orchestra,” said Hull, before adding, “You probably knew that, but it seemed rude not to introduce ourselves.”

The band delivered a set full of dynamic shifts in tone. One moment the music was tender, Hull singing,“and the Lord showed me dreams of my daughter … I felt love again,” during “I Can Feel a Hot One” from 2009’s Mean Everything to Nothing. In the next moment it conjured a grungy wall of sound. With two guitarists, keyboardist, bassist, drummer and even a second percussionist for some of the songs, the sound was epic.

The band played three songs from 2021’s The Million Masks of God. The gentle piano of “Dinosaur” gave the powerful overdriven guitars a bit of yacht rock sophistication. “Keel Timing” throbbed with a Pink-Floyd-style groove, while “Bed Head” pummeled the audience with a two-drummer onslaught.

The set spanned the band’s extensive discography, from tender ballads to pop-punk dance anthems and guitar feedback. Though there were a handful of heartfelt, tender songs like “The Maze” and “Simple Math,” the majority of was dedicated to more complex, noisier songs like opener “Pride.” One of the hits of the night was 2009 dance anthem “Shake It Out.”

Hull and company played just one song from their latest album, this year’s The Valley of Vision. The programmed drums and synth washes of “The Way” gave it a mellow, cinematic feel that offered respite from the more intense aural assaults.

Arizona pop-punk legends Jimmy Eat World prior set mined the nostalgia factor of their two-decade deep catalog much to the crowd’s delight. Though the emo quartet doesn’t seem to have much in common with Manchester Orchestra, attendees clearly knew both bands, and the series of three title tracks from 2001’s Bleed American, 2002’s Sweetness and last year’s Something Loud had the crowd moving.

The highlight of the hour-long set was smash hit “The Middle.” The emo anthem even got people in the balcony on their feet. Vocalist Jim Adkins’ powerful vocals sliced through the mix, and the effect was intensified with powerful backing harmonies from guitarist Tom Linton.

Though much of the set was comprised of older material, the quartet did play the title track from 2022’s Place Your Debts, a very different ballad from the rough emo sound that shot Jimmy Eat World to success. In fact, that song sounded like Manchester Orchestra.

The band also slowed down for emotional, Death-Cab-For-Cutie-esque rock ballads like “This Light” and “Futures.” Its versatility, much like Manchester Orchestra, may be its greatest strength.

Middle Kids, a pop-punk-adjacent band from Sydney, Australia, opened the show. The quartet killed it, with singer-guitarist Hannah Joy evoking ’90s nostalgia with a jangly roar, part Cranberries, part Paramore.

“This is a dream gig for us,” Joy told the crowd, who they managed to get moving by the end of their 30-minute set that included “Questions,” from 2021 album Today We’re the Greatest.