The audience at Iowa State’s Maintenance Shop received a night full of jokes, rock and indie pop Friday night.

Bad Bad Hats, an indie rock outfit based out of Minneapolis, performed all their hits as well as a song called “Spin” that had never been played live before. Local Waterloo-based rock band SIRES opened for the band, providing the kind of sweaty and grimy rock ‘n’ roll that surged the Black Keys to international prominence in the 2000s.

The headliner had nothing but praise for the Maintenance Shop and many Ames establishments including Wheatsfield Cooperative and The Cafe. Friday night marked the second time they had headlined the Maintenance Shop, along with multiple performances in Des Moines through the years at festivals such as the 80/35 Music Festival.

“I think Ames might have been one of the first places we played in Iowa,” lead singer Kerry Alexander said. “Every time we come and play it’s been a really fun show and it’s nice to come out to a new place and have people come out and get to meet them and have a good time.”

Alexander’s stage presence was also a talking point with M-Shop co-director Angela Chamberlain earlier this week. She described the singer as having a funny way of introducing songs and interacting with the audience, which was on full display at Friday night’s concert.

“Breakups, crushes, unrequited loves, the plot to ‘A Walk To Remember,’ those are the primary things I write songs about,” Alexander said, drawing laughter from the audience.

The infusion of humor into their set stems from the early days of the band.

“I had a really old Epiphone guitar that went out of tune really bad and was hard to tune, so we had many shows where there was horrible, awkward silence while our tiny crowd waited for me to tune my guitar so it’s probably a defense mechanism to fill the space with something, but I also like hearing what people’s songs are about,” Alexander said.

The band’s distinct style of indie rock combined dance-inspired instrumentals with Alexander’s tales of heartbreak and past loves that had the audience dancing and singing along all night.

Opening band SIRES did not disappoint either. The band consists of Dylan Sires, Ross Klemz and Graham Howland. The group pulled no punches in the 30-minute opening set, playing brash rock ‘n’ roll, cut through beautifully by Sires’ silky vocals. The members of Bad Bad Hats had heard the band playing at a show in Des Moines and were anxious to have an Iowa show where SIRES could open for them, leaving Ames as the perfect spot for both bands to join forces.