Call them Built to Skynyrd.

        Built to Spill, the Boise, Idaho band responsible for some of the finest indie-rock and major-label alt-rock albums of the past 10 years, played a show at Bogart's Saturday night representative of their catalog.

        But what people will remember about the show will be the covers, especially the one that closed it out.

        For a long time, yelling a request for Lynyrd Skynyrd's “Free Bird” has stood as the lamest form of self-expression exercised by the random concert-goer. Every band ignores these calls. Built to Spill, in its boundless wisdom, has come up with a better response: playing the song.

        The trio, led by singer/songwriter/guitarist Doug Martsch and augmented by various members of the opening acts, broke out the Southern-rock nugget. Mr. Martsch and guests Brett Netson and Jim Roth joined forces for a faithful recreation of the song's triple-guitar double-time finale, and it sounded great.

        In fact, it was the hardest the band rocked all night. Their own “Randy Describes Eternity,” “Time Trap” and “Nowhere Nothin' (Expletive)” came close, but for a band whose albums blast from the speakers, Built to Spill didn't seem very willing to summon that power. Some tunes received the drawn-out, extended-jam treatment, but nothing eclipsed any recorded version.

        Mr. Martsch's dreamy, wistful songwriting shined through even the most slothful performances of the night. This was especially true of tunes from Built to Spill's latest album, Ancient Melodies of the Future, which out of the gate has been criticized by some fans as too soft and slow but in the long run may prove to be a laid-back classic.

        The album fulfills the band's contractual obligation to Warner Brothers, and rumors swirl that the label will dump them and that Mr. Martsch is about to put the wrecking ball to the current lineup. If so, the timing is weird. Saturday's crowd was huge, about double the size that turned out for their last Bogart's show two years ago.

        Perhaps the cloudy future contributed to the loose vibe. How else do you justify these great modern rockers covering Skynyrd, George Harrison's “What is Life” and Cheap Trick's “The Dream Police” in one show?

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Built to Spill pulls up the covers at Bogarts
'Fuddy Meers' wild ride through off-kilter world
Strong supporting cast lifts 'Lear'
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Celtic dancers invade Coney Island
Get to it