At the Commodore Ballroom on Thursday, October 22

A certain Straight staffer considers himself an expert on all things that rock. Despite the cajoling of a few in-the-know cohorts, he steadfastly refused to entertain the notion of going to the Gossip show at the Commodore. On the basis of a few seconds spent watching the Portland-based band's clips on YouTube, he declared, “Doesn't rock. Sucks, dudes.” And that's how the aforementioned staffer, who shall remain anonymous, missed the best show of 2009 so far. Gossip most certainly did rock, thank you very much.

Things started out on a relatively sedate note, with drummer Hannah Blilie and bassist Chris Sutton pounding out the slow, pared-down rhythm of “Dimestore Diamond”. Singer Beth Ditto delivered the first few lines of the song from off-stage, but when she strode out, a nearly empty beer cup in one hand and a microphone in the other, she quickly took command. After toiling in indie-rock obscurity for the first half of this decade, Gossip (formerly the Gossip) has entered the mainstream without compromise, and Ditto has become a champion for lesbians, fat girls, Arkansans, and misfits of every stripe. With the possible exception of Arkansans, all of the above were represented in the Commodore crowd, and their hero didn't let any of them down.

Clad in a skintight black slip dress, her hair dyed candy-apple red, and her eyes lined in Cleopatra black, Ditto stomped every part of the stage, working up a sweat and belting like an old-school blues shouter. Only she's not fronting a blues band. From its garage-rock roots, Gossip has grown into an act as adept at new-wave synth-pop as it is at all-guns-blazing punk and, with the cowbell-accented “Men in Love”, a potent brand of bare-bones funk. This is an act that has little use for unnecessary embellishment. There was nary a needless drum fill or instrumental lick to be heard, just a tight and—as on a cover of Bikini Kill's “Rebel Girl”—sometimes savage attack.

Much of the band's genre-jumping was determined by whether Nathan “Brace Paine” Howdeshell was playing keyboards or guitar. He's competent on the former but proved downright lethal on the latter, even if touring bassist Sutton occasionally stole some of his rhythmic thunder. Ditto is inevitably the centre of attention, however. As a rock 'n' roll singer, she's superb, but with “Four Letter Word”, she proved she has more than respectable gospel chops.

Gossip ended its set with an incendiary version of the Music for Men single “Heavy Cross”, its beefy funk riffs underlining some of Ditto's most forceful singing. It was a killer performance, but in retrospect it was merely a taste of what was to come. After starting its two-song encore with an entertaining but slight take on “What's Love Got to Do With It” (featuring a keyboard cameo by JD Samson of opening act MEN), Gossip launched into what has become its signature number, the gay-rights anthem “Standing in the Way of Control”. A powerful mashup of punk, disco, and soul, the song had the whole room contributing to its “whoa-oh-oh” refrain. It also found Ditto climbing down to the dance floor, wading deep into the throng, and making her way from one side of the club to the other. She was singing the whole time, and when she was done, she received sweaty hugs from her grateful fans before heading back to the stage.

Once there, she led a sated crowd in an a cappella sing-along of the chorus from “the first queer anthem”, Queen's “We Are the Champions”. And you know what? We really did feel like champions, having witnessed such a cathartic and, yes, thoroughly rocking show—which is more than a certain unnamed Straight staffer can say. Not that I want to rub it in or anything.