The major labels may have deserted Nada Surf after wringing the trio’s once ubiquitous losercore anthem, "Popular," dry back in 1996, but fans have always known that the group have more going for them than one prom-worthy hit and a mention in somebody’s class yearbook. Nada Surf — singer/guitarist Daniel Caws, bassist/singer Daniel Lorca, and drummer Ira Elliot — might indeed be a pop footnote these days if not for the likes of the sold-out crowd that packed the Middle East’s upstairs a week ago Wednesday.

Likely stung by the backlash and the snickering that often greets alleged one-hit wonders, the band stayed away from their debut smash, High/Low (Elektra), and they didn’t get within a high-school football field of "Popular." (A few folks wondered whether they’d play it, but everyone knew better than to call out for the tune.) Instead, they devoted most of a kinetic 60-minute set to selections from their new Let Go (Barsuk), opening with the harmony-dressed "Blizzard of ’77" and then dashing headlong into the scuffed indie-pop buzz of "The Way You Wear Your Head." Six of the first seven songs were drawn from the new album, and they threw in a few scruffy smart bombs from their overlooked 1998 sophomore effort, The Proximity Effect (MSI).

Like all Jonathan Richman disciples, Caws has the perfect smart-but-shy-boy voice for the sweet and sour adolescent ache that underpinned his band’s geek-love subject matter: unrequited crushes; fitting in (or, more accurately, not fitting in); relishing the small, perfect moments. The clever arrangements and concise verse-bridge-chorus pop structures that framed the new "Inside of Love" and "Treading Water" didn’t hurt either. These songs were very much like those small, perfect moments of rapture and release Caws sang about, and Nada Surf’s set was full of them.

Much the same could be said about the brief but fetching opening set by buzz-worthy Norwegian solo export Sondre Lerche, whose broken English and bashful aplomb proved an ideal match for his wind-blown brand of airy urban folk pop.