One night after playing a sold-out show at the giant, out-of-the-way monstrosity of a venue, Terminal 5 (or “The Thunderdome” as lead singer A.C. Newman put it), the New Pornographers played a sold-out show at the smaller, equally out-of-the-way venue the Bell House  on June 20.  And befitting the smaller venue, the show was more intimate and conversational. Newman described it as a “special” show, sort of separate from the rest of the tour, so the band would play a lot of songs they didn’t normally play. They even fulfilled some audience requests (at least the songs they were going to play anyway), and cobbled together a few songs they hadn’t played live before, or at least in some time.

Newman also delighted in dragging official-but-aloofly-distant member Dan Bejar onstage. Bejar usually sits out songs he doesn’t sing, so Newman kept playing Bejar’s tunes, along with an impromptu version of “Streets of Fire,” which the band had to figure out on the fly. Bejar would dutifully take the stage when summoned, crank out his off-kilter-yet-catchy tune, and skulk offstage. But in a good-natured way.

Being something of a “supergroup,” it was a rare treat to see the band in such a small venue, and at full strength. Bejar and Neko Case don’t always tour with the band, and their presence really amps up the energy. But it’s unlikely that they could have fit even one more person on the stage, with all eight members and a few additional musicians taking up every last inch of real estate.

All told, the band played over 20 songs, including most of the “hits” (“Letter to an Occupant,” “Sing Me Spanish Techno,”) deeper cuts (“The Body Says No,” “July Jones”) and a cover of Julian Cope’s anti-terrorism sing-along “All The Blowing-Themselves-Up-Motherfuckers (Will Realise The Minute They Die That They Themselves Were Suckers).”