Soul Asylum came and left almost without a trace Thursday night at the Lied Recreation Center.

The band said little, played no encore and performed to a scant crowd of about 300.

Some audience members were especially impressed with the band.

“That was $5 enjoyable,” said Jeremy Natoli, senior in English, “and not in the bad sense. That was the best damn $5 I’ve spent in a long time.”

However, for the most part the audience clapped and nodded politely as Soul Asylum played, not exactly sure what to expect from Rock the Rec’s main attraction.

Despite the low attendance, Soul Asylum played passionately. Dave Pirner especially seemed to be excited by the music he was performing, erratically dancing during the blues-tinged “Candy from a Stranger” and spinning while swinging his guitar around his body during much of the set.

“This one’s about Texas Tea,” Pirner said before launching into “Black Gold.” The song’s opening riff drew the biggest response from the crowd, many of whom sang along with the hit off of 1992’s “Grave Dancers Union.”

Although ears perked up during songs from “Grave Dancers” and “Let Your Dim Light Shine,” such as “Runaway Train” and “Misery,” most of the crowd remained fairly unresponsive during the band’s performance.

“You can’t expect more from your crowd than your crowd expects from you,” Pirner said after the show.

Still, the band seemed to be enjoying themselves, poking fun at each other and Veishea prior to playing “Without a Trace.”

“What’s that word mean? Vish .” Pirner asked the crowd, trailing off.

Bassist Karl Mueller and Pirner attempted to pronounce the word for a few minutes, as the crowd shouted “Veishea.”

“You can tell these two dropped out of college,” said guitarist Dan Murphy.

“And you didn’t?” Mueller quickly retorted.

“I made it through two quarters,” Murphy said. “That’s pretty good.”

Ultimate Fakebook opened the show in true rock `n’ roll fashion, pulling rock star poses and making generous use of the “rock box,” which was a platform/fog machine combination.