“You’re running me ragged,” Grace Potter sang after gliding onto stage with her Gibson Flying V. A sublime sight to behold, there was nothing ragged about her. With heads banging and hair flying, Potter and The Nocturnals were pumped and ready to party while the audience, primed by openers Chris and Oliver Wood (The Wood Brothers), was right there with them.

Potter cozied-up to her Hammond B-3 organ for the blues-rock number “Ain’t No Time.” Guitarist Scott Tournet got the room pulsating when he pressed his lips to a harmonica and launched the band into a foot stompin’ cover of “Mystery Train” (Phillips/Parker). Potter shook her tambourine and bounced around the stage as the band dug into “Joey.” Tournet handed her a Shure green bullet microphone which was connected to his Fender Blues Jr. guitar amp to provide voice distortion and drama for the tale of domestic abuse: “When he looks me in the eye, he’ll hit me ‘til I cry, he’s trying to get inside my door.”

The a cappella beauty of Potter’s “Nothing But The Water” was muffled by the clapping and singing along of an audience striving to devour every once of the music. The din subsided during Potter’s solo performance of “Lose Some Time,” but only until she sang the lyrics “Lost some time in good old Philadelphia...”

More new songs like “Every Mile” and “The Big White Gate” demonstrated the band’s moxie while “Put Your Head Down” escalated into a storm. As Potter dragged her guitar across one amp, Tournet knelt down for his guitar to kiss another. In a blink, Potter was flat on her back and then her stomach next to the acoustic she was strumming. Tournet pounded out feedback and drummer Matt Burr threw down cymbals. Bryan Dondero (bass) gave the cymbals a kick as the band exited the stage leaving guitars screaming feedback.

The audience clamored until the band re-emerged playing the Rolling Stones’ “No Expectations” and marking the end to an ebullient evening of blues, gospel and rock ‘n’ roll by The Nocturnals and amazing Grace Potter.