The most striking thing about Pinback’s performance at the Paradise last Saturday was the near-total absence of interesting haircuts. On most nights, one can’t get within 50 feet of the venue of any sort of innovative music in Boston without having to wade through swamps of head-borne angles and asymmetries. Perhaps it was the show’s proximity to Boston University or the speed with which it sold out that kept the Haircuts home in favor of more traditional-looking frat boys.

Whatever the reason, it was the Haircuts’ loss. The San Diego quintet put on a subdued but energetic performance well worth the trek to Boston proper.

After a bizarre, costume-heavy, and not particularly funny musical comedy performance by a group known as Pleaseasaur, Pinback took the stage and launched into a set of crisp, dynamic rock. Vocalists Armistead Burwell Smith IV and Rob Crow traded off lead and backup duties throughout the set, producing consistently beautiful harmonies. The band’s specialty is the mid-tempo pop-rock nugget, and they succeed in coming up with songs that are always pleasant, but never quite transcendent. This set showed off all the best moments from their 8+ year career.

If there’s a complaint to be lodged against Pinback, it’s that the songs all sound more or less the same. Nearly every song was dominated by the lead guitar and bass (the bass much higher in the mix than usual for rock bands); vocals are buried beneath each song’s few riffs to the point of unintelligibility; no song strayed far from its studio version. None of this is particularly bad in itself, but it can get tiring after 90 minutes.

During crowd favorite “Penelope,” a fan climbed onto the stage, yelled something inaudible, and then dove into the crowd. Beyond simple propriety, this was inappropriate because the performance wasn’t the sort of thing that inspires aggressive behavior in any normal person. Nodding, smiling, swaying, but not stage diving. It’s a good thing they weren’t here—the Haircuts would not have approved.