Kevin Bronson on February 6th, 2020

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Remember those spindly indie kids who clawed their way into Silversun Pickups’ shows in the early 2000s? They need to hire babysitters to see one of the L.A. quartet’s concerts now, and some aren’t so spindly anymore.

As for those rangy Pickups themselves, Brian Aubert, Nikki Monninger, Joe Lester and Christopher Guanlao seem hermetically sealed since the mid-2000s, both in body and spirit. On Wednesday night at the Observatory, the second of a 30-date tour in support of their fifth album, “Widow’s Weeds,” they were remarkably same as they ever were, for better and worse.

They are still the alternative rockers who smile an inordinate amount of the time. They remain a tight, familial unit who eschew gimmicks or outlandish theatrics. Aubert still takes childlike glee in every paroxysmal guitar squall and, hand over heart, says things like, “It’s amazing you guys keep coming to see us.” Monninger still pogos merrily to her loping bass lines. Lester still mans his keyboards and gadgets like a gamer trying to best his own high score. And Guanlao remains all hair, arms and sticks, exploding to the impossibly elevated crash cymbal on his right.

To cop a song title, steady as she goes.

But to cop another, seeing SSPU always feels like the first time, even as the quartet’s signature hit “Lazy Eye” approaches parent-rock status.

The Observatory crowd made Wednesday feel that way, too. They dutifully performed a finger-snap-along to the song “Don’t Know Yet,” cheered louder every time Monninger had a vocal part and soaked in the fury of hard-hitters such as “Well Thought Out Twinkles” (2006) and “Panic Switch” (2009).

While “Widow’s Weeds” proves too inwards-looking (and perhaps overthought) to be the kind of powder-keg album that could blow SSPU out of its lane, the songs did take on a new dynamic live. But when contrasted with their contemporaries — for instance, Grammy-winning Cage the Elephant, who opened for SSPU on a tour 11 years ago this spring — the Pickups seem to be playing it safe.

That said, Wednesday’s setlist, which they are said to be switching up each night on this tour, seemed programmed for maximum swoon. Over 1 hour 40 minutes, they performed 17 songs: five from the new album (including the pulsing “Neon Wound” and “It Doesn’t Matter Why” to start the night; three from 2015’s “Better Nature;” two from 2012’s “Neck of the Woods;” three from 2009’s “Swoon;” and three from their 2006 debut “Carnavas.” Oh, and for old time’s sake, they revisited “Kissing Families” from their first EP “Pikul,” which turns 15 years old later this year.

“Lazy Eye,” which somehow never sounds old, wrapped the night in a bow, and charismatic as ever, Silversun Pickups departed to wild cheers, on brand.

The headliners were preceded by Australian rockers Eliza & the Delusionals, who seemed not a bit bleary-eyed even though they had flown into Southern California at 6 a.m. Wednesday morning. Playing their first Stateside show, they showcased tunes from their forthcoming EP, “A State of Living in Objective Reality” (out in March). Nascent L.A. quartet Cuffed Up started off the night with a half hour of edgy post-punk.

SSPU’s tour continues Friday night at the Wiltern.

Setlist: Neon Wound, It Doesn’t Matter Why, Well Thought Out Twinkles, Panic Switch, Freakazoid, Substitution, Circadian Rhythm, Don’t Know Yet, Dots and Dashes (Enough Already), Mean Spirits, Friendly Fires, Kissing Families, Nightlight, Growing Old Is Getting Old. Encore: Straw Man, Three Seed, Lazy Eye.

Photos by Matt Cowan