As soon as the lights in Stephens dimmed Tuesday night, the crowd gathered to see the Indigo Girls bolted from their chairs and squealed with anticipatory delight. When Amy Ray and Emily Saliers walked out on stage moments later, the air erupted in a cacophony of adoration.

Few artists command a high level of loyalty, love and respect from a seriously devoted following, and rightly so. Watching performers who genuinely return these feelings to their audience is more refreshing than a full-body rub down with eucalyptus oil. How many openers would come out to introduce let alone play with their opening acts? Damn few if any. This was just pure class.

Every other concert has someone asking if Ames is ready to rock with a shout out to Highway 30, but when the duo talked about its leisurely day in Ames golfing, bowling and eating lunch at Happy Chef, you knew Amy Ray and Emily Saliers had a good time in our small corner of Iowa and felt obliged to return the favor. The audience loved the attention; it really pumped them up.

Indigo Girls opened with “Peace Tonight” and in spite of what looked like one or two technical problems, the song went off smoothly enough. Afterwards, the duo said “thanks y’all” for the first but certainly not the last time that night. In fact, the two were all about thanking the audience members, telling them how sweet they were for cheering and clapping. There were no bad attitudes on that stage, just a love for performing that cannot be paralleled.

The show was bare bones. There weren’t a lot of lasers, costume changes, video clips or explosions. A simple backdrop of earth tones was the extent of the stage dressing and except for a few colored lights that occasionally pointed to the audience or spotlighted a singer, everything was simple, plain and homey. This was folk rock the way it’s meant to be — heard with as few frills, bells and whistles as possible.

Nothing came between the crowd and the ladies on stage — no one would have wanted it any other way.

Half the night was all about audience participation and if you have ever been to a show where the crowd knows the words to all the songs, it was likely nothing compared to what happened Tuesday. Everyone knew the words and sang along like it was the “Walton’s Christmas Special..”

Saliers and Ray turned the auditorium into an Ozark-style hootenanny with Saliers’ quick-fingered banjo picking and Ray’s husky vocals and riveting mandolin strumming on “Ozilline.” Ray dedicated the song to her grandfather beforehand, and it was touches like this that made the show personal.

Emily Saliers might as well have been in a room of a dozen people rather than an auditorium of several thousand when she sang “Philosophy of Loss” about the position most churches take against homosexuality. Saliers’ voice practically drips with honey, it is so sweet.

After nearly two hours of delighting the crowd, the audience screamed for an encore of “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” and “Galileo,” always a favorite of longtime fans.

Stephens has always been a quaint venue, but on Tuesday night, it felt more like a coffeehouse than a playhouse or auditorium. If you missed the show, the Girls will undoubtedly be back again to share the love.