Nearly 2000 fans were on hand Saturday night at the Lied Center for Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant 40th Anniversary Massacre Tour.” The enthusiastic, largely baby-boomer audience sounded at times more like the Fillmore than the Lied, as Guthrie and his group played and sang their way through his own well-known songs and folk standards, as well as some new material.

A lively young group, The Mammals, opened for Guthrie. Led by Tao Rodriguez-Seeger (folk great Pete Seeger’s grandson) and Ruthie Ungar, this five-person string and percussion ensemble filled the hall with high-energy picking and fiddling, from the fast-paced opener to “John Henry” and “Fall On My Knees,” as well as the comic “Haircut Money” and the Latin syncopation of “Chan Chan.”

The group also handled the political heavy lifting, singing “The Bush Boys” by guitarist/banjoist Michael Merenda. The lyrics, which proclaim that “George” is “public enemy number one,” brought raucous cheers from the crowd, and loud boos answering the cheers.

Arlo Guthrie took the stage after intermission and had the audience in the palm of his hand from the beginning. Always at ease, his voice is still mellow, perhaps more so at 67 than at 27; his sense of humor is as droll as ever, and his timing never misses.

And though it’s easy to focus on Arlo the ’60s legend, don’t forget that he is a very talented musician. His eloquent guitar solo on “House of the Rising Sun” easily eclipses the versions of Bob Dylan or The Animals. The song itself dates from at least the 1920s, and was sung by Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger in 1941 with the Almanac Singers.

Arlo Guthrie played to almost 2,000 fans Saturday night at the Lied Center. While the famous folk singer has mellowed, his music still contains a message laced with political underpinnings.

Several Guthrie favorites, including “Coming Into Los Angeles,” Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man,” Woody’s “This Land is Your Land,” and of course “Alice’s Restaurant,” were included, as well as titles like “Darkest Hour” and his more recent “Haleiwa Farewell.” He was accompanied by his son Abe on keyboards, and Gordon Titcomb (looking uncannily like Frank Zappa) on several instruments, notably the mandolin and pedal steel. The Mammals also joined in for the latter half of Guthrie’s set, including a fine and frenzied Celtic reel.

Guthrie had clearly chosen to let The Mammals handle the more acerbic political jabs. Observing at one point that now he wasn’t “nearly the threat I intended to be,” he kept his own commentary as mellow as his music, with one slight glance at the evolution controversy. He also noted that “in a world of peace, love and plenty you would have to go a long way to make a positive contribution,” and that therefore people should be grateful for the opportunities to do good that an imperfect world provides.

The audience rewarded Mr. Guthrie with a heartfelt standing ovation, and he returned for “City of New Orleans,” accompanying himself on piano. A second standing ovation followed his final number, “Peace Song,” his setting of one of his father’s last lyrics. He explained: “This is not a marching-around peace, but a little peace inside you that makes other people want to be around you.”

– Dean Bevan is a professor emeritus of English at Baker University. He can be reached at bevan@ku.edu.