It's rare to see pop performers work harder than they have to onstage. Usually what you get is a well-rehearsed impersonation of energy and enthusiasm. But on Saturday night at the Electric Factory, Hanson genuinely ripped it up, romping through a two-hour-plus set that was an unalloyed pleasure.

The sibling singers certainly didn't have to try so hard. Their still rabid female fan base would scream deliriously if Isaac, Taylor and Zac merely strolled out and waved to the crowd.

But Hanson is a surprisingly polished and confident live act. With the help of two supplementary musicians, they delivered a rich, layered sound, driven hard by Zac's rock-ribbed drumming.

The boys' specialty is a fetching brand of perky, hooky pop song that rides along on a solid underbody of backbeat. And they offered up a ton of such numbers on Saturday, including "You'll Never Know," "This Time Around," "Wish That I Was There," and "Crazy Beautiful."

With the crowd greeting the opening chords of each song with roars of recognition and approval, Hanson could have mailed it in. Instead, they overdelivered.

This was a fun, frisky night of pop even before the headliners took the stage. Ingram Hill, a scruffy young quartet from Memphis, opened with a catchy set of Wilco-ish country rock. Their smoke machine was feeble, but the band really cooked.

They were followed by Ben Jelen, a troubadour with a style that might be described as Goth-romantic, staking out a lonely continuum between Ben Folds and the Cure. Jelen is a decent writer but a sloppy singer. Judging by the crowd, that fault doesn't seem to matter when you have a face handsomer than Billy Crudup and long jet-black hair that is constantly flopping over your eyes.