What happens when innovations become tropes? That depends on the innovators, as was made smashingly clear by Monday’s performance at the Music Box by Gang of Four (more about smashing later). The U.K. quartet’s classic 1979 album Entertainment! heralded the group as punk-funk progenitors, blurring disco’s dance floor urgency with punk’s political insurgency. Gang of Four since became one of popular music’s most influential concerns for everyone from R.E.M, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Fugazi to new post-punk revivalists spanning Bloc Party and the Rapture.

The band, formed in Leeds in 1977, has also endured as timeless rather than nostalgic by remaining one of rock’s most kinetic live acts. When they reunited in 2005, their concerts proved even better than when Gang of Four was supposedly in their prime. While this recent performance wasn’t up to that level, it still demonstrated a commitment to savage artistry like no act in recent memory.

“The first time we played here, it was a disaster,” singer Jon King snarled a third of the way through the concert, launching into an anecdote about a bass player with a smashed nose leaving the stage slick with blood.