Only 50 or so people witnessed the fabulous explosion that was Tripping Daisy when they last blew the socks off of an Ames crowd. The Dallas-based band will probably never regain the explosive power they had during the Veishea 1994 performance in the State Gym. Monday night’s show at the Maintenance Shop reinforced this theory, like a smoking gun.

Tripping Daisy played to a packed house consisting mostly of barely-voting-age individuals with bowl cuts and cropped t-shirts.

The night began with fellow Island Records signees, UFOFU and Local H, but the true show started with TD at 11:10 p.m., several hours after the doors opened. Somehow, the band squeezed their special effects experience into the cozy Shop, and their sound guy expertly set things into motion.

After a strobe light warning (big clue as to how the rest of the evening would be!), the show started in the smoky, darkened room as blue spotlights slowly faded in and swirled around the stage. Tim DeLaughter, the vocalist with spooky, Vincent Price capabilities, donned a pair of goggles.

As he growled and snarled into his microphone, he sounded like a 45-rpm record played at 33 speed in a bathtub. It was like being in the middle of the action in The Abyss. Were we underwater or what?

After several moments of near-drowning, TD launched into their first song. The revolving disco ball threw Cheerios of light around the room and punctuated the grating guitar and Tim’s on-stage spasms. Tripping Daisy huddled deep in the groove of their summer release, i am an ELASTIC FIRECRACKER, an album with much more heft and grindage than their debut, Bill.

The crowd apparently caught DeLaughter’s psychotic fever, because the throng in front swarmed into one cohesive mass of jiggling Jell-O. This was not moshing music; rather, it transformed everyone into an army of bouncing Tiggers.

DeLaughter strapped one on (a guitar, that is) for “Piranha,” a slightly more accessible and catchier tune than the first few songs. The extra instrument layered on some more depth and complexity that was lacking in the other material. Grab that guitar more often, dude!

“Rocketpop” blazed into a major strobe fest; everything moved in slow motion as the band eased into mellow interludes (accompanied by spinning disco lights) between raucous riffs of guitar.

The single lapse back to early days of fun and poppiness came with “One Through Four,” the only non-encore song they played from Bill. Obviously, this was a smart move because the crowd went crazy: limbs flailed, hair flew, heads banged. Who wouldn’t love a song about premature ejaculation?

The obligatory “I Got a Girl,” the band’s ticket to Billboard success, came next, but TD put an interesting twist on a song that’s got to drive them nuts: Tim let the audience sing the refrain.

With all of his twisting and trouting on stage, it’s a wonder he doesn’t run out of breath. Does he teach aerobics or what?

Tripping Daisy exploded to a halt after an hour on stage with a jolt of praise for the crowd: “It’s been a fuckin’ pleasure, man!” DeLaughter shouted. “This has been the best audience we’ve had in four months!”

The band returned, with a little prodding, to perform a three-song encore, two tunes of which were from their first album. Judging by the response, I have to wonder why on earth they didn’t shuffle their old material in with the new. It’s not like the audience wasn’t belting out requests for songs off the debut; TD needs to start listening to their fans.

The crowd broke into fits of Jane Fonda-esque activity; “Lost and Found” and “My Umbrella” were definitely the matches that sparked the inferno.

The band would’ve been smarter to sift other old faves in with the new, less catchy stuff.

But then, I’m just a dreamer.