Gender Politics Wiggles Into a World Guys Staked Out

Laura Jane Grace, the frontwoman of the punk band Against Me!, introduced all the new songs by name on Thursday night at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, as the singer of a band with a new album generally does, and should do.

“This one’s called ‘True Trans Souuuuullll Rebel,’ ” she said. It’s a vicious and beautiful number from the band’s new album, “Transgender Dysphoria Blues,” and appealingly peppy, too. From the opening verse:

All dressed up and nowhere to go
You’re walking the streets all alone
Another night to wish you could forget
Making yourself up as you go along

At the chorus, she was joined by the guitarist James Bowman and the bassist Inge Johansson, singing, “Who’s going to take you home tonight?/Who’s going to take you home?” But then Ms. Grace was alone again, driving home the kicker: “Does God bless your transsexual heart?/True trans soul rebel.”

“Transgender Dysphoria Blues” (Total Treble), the band’s sixth album, will be released this month — the first after a mixed-bag major-label run, and the first after the beginning of Ms. Grace’s transition from male to female. (This followed an acoustic EP, “True Trans,” in July 2013.)

Ms. Grace was formerly Tom Gabel, who in May 2012 revealed to Rolling Stone that she had been living with gender dysphoria for years. That same month, she began undergoing hormone therapy.

And so Against Me! is a different band from what it’s been for the bulk of its decade-plus existence, though not so different. Only Mr. Bowman survives from the old lineup. (The permanent band now includes Mr. Johansson on bass, and Atom Willard on drums.) Against Me! has always been a dogmatic band, earnest to a fault, tackling corporate greed and the flaws of privilege in broad and sometimes ham-handed fashion.

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The other members of Against Me! — the ones who left — were not men who’d suddenly found themselves in a politicized band, but rather in a band that was expanding its politics to new terrain. About two-thirds of the new album touches on Ms. Grace’s personal evolution.

But the big shock of “Transgender Dysphoria Blues” isn’t its content, but its polish. In places, it recalls far more anthemically minded punk bands like the Gaslight Anthem, or even Green Day. The charm of Against Me! has always been its slightly lumpy proletarian presentation — more chant-along than singalong.

But no more. The album is, for the most part, crisp and direct and vibrant, and occasionally dull, an inevitable side effect of sandpapering rough edges. At this show, too, the new songs, like “Unconditional Love,” were distracting more for their smoothness than anything else. That was especially the case when compared with the bromides that have long been the stock in trade of Against Me!: the anticapitalist “Turn Those Clapping Hands Into Angry Balled Fists,” the antiwar “White People for Peace,” the anti-everything “I Was a Teenage Anarchist.”

Mixed in with the old songs, the specific potency of the new material was diluted somewhat, but that was a calculated choice, of course. And, given that, it remains to be seen whether enjoying this band means anything different from what it once did. There were still shirtless bros playing air guitar, still bearded bros pumping their fists and chanting along to the old polemics.

But there were new questions. Were the male fans who pushed their way onstage to sing a few bars of one of the band’s classics — and it was always the old songs — enthusiasts who wanted a moment with their favorite band, or masculinists pushing back against a changed gender dynamic? (Either way, they were hustled offstage by one of the band’s roadies.)

Was it an aesthetic or political choice that Mr. Bowman and Mr. Johansson didn’t sing along with the most pointed parts of “True Trans Soul Rebel”? Was it meaningful that Mr. Bowman handled the choruses on a couple of the rougher songs by himself, while Ms. Grace stalked the stage, slashing away at her guitar and grinning while taking in the rowdy crowd?

After the final song of the encore, the fans who’d ended up onstage chanting along in Ms. Grace and Mr. Bowman’s microphones basked in the moment, and a couple of them gave Ms. Grace warm, gentle hugs. And after the house lights went up, Ms. Grace worked the fans in the front row, shaking hands and accepting gifts — very much a hero still.