No surprise, then, to see him decked out in a black suit with a white collar (crucifix not visible) for his Town Hall show. Even with his own career sidetracked for a while, he'd lost nothing of his warm, mellow croon or bandleader technique, corralling your typical, cozy singer-songwriter quartet into channeling Identity's spooky vibes.

That dynamic was mostly thanks to guitarist Marc Ribot, who wailed through a wall of pedal effects, locking into intensive workouts with Burnett ("Zombieland") or unleashing his own piercing solos ("Palestine, Texas," "Humans From Earth"). Near the end, the two guitarists climaxed with the jazzy anti-Bush screed "Fear Country" and a Velvets rave-up on the anti-fundamentalist "Blinded by the Darkness"; Burnett dropped his ax for the doomy yet comical "Hollywood, Mecca of Movies," reading his lyrics from a sheet like a sermon. And he still managed an impressive 20-minute tour of his oldies for the encore: Gone were the solos and guitar dialogues, as the songs struck a calmer tone, from heartbreaking to mesmerizing. And when Burnett said, "God bless you . . . see you next time," it didn't sound like he meant "on the other side."