With the release of their major-label debut, New Wave, this past summer, Against Me! sought to broaden their musical scope while simultaneously leaving a big ugly scar on the face of the music industry. If Saturday night's show at the Majestic Theatre is any example, this four-piece outfit from Gainesville, Fla., is certainly succeeding on all fronts.

The evening began with the punk styling of Cobra Skulls, a band with a sound similar to Against Me!'s earlier work. While generally well-received by the audience, they were merely an appetizer for the seven-course meal that was yet to come.

Following Cobra Skulls, the World/Inferno Friendship Society crowded the stage with their nine-person band hailing from Brooklyn, N.Y. A surprised welcomed by all in attendance, the eclectic World/Inferno's sound can best be described as the aftermath of a three-car pileup involving a punk band, a jazz trio and a cabaret outfit, with The Hold Steady's Franz Nicolay thrown in on accordion for good measure.

Next on the bill was underground hip-hop hero Sage Francis. With a sound comparable to Atmosphere or Brother Ali, only more political and metaphorical, Sage's sound left those who thought they were coming to a punk show scratching their heads. Following a few tracks, Sage's mastery on the mic won the crowd over as he blazed through cuts from several of his albums and featured samples from the likes of Van Halen, Nirvana and Nine Inch Nails.

Since signing to a major label and having their latest release overseen by super-producer Butch Vig, Against Me! have taken flak from punk fans everywhere claiming they sold out. However, even the loudest of naysayers would have been silenced as Against Me! exuded more energy during their hourlong set than most bands do in their entire career.

Taking the stage in front of a simple black backdrop and standard white lights, Against Me! opened with their call to arms against the bloated, monotonous drivel currently being pumped through the FM waves in New Wave's title track. The already frenzied audience just got crazier when they followed that with perhaps their most beloved song, "Pints of Guinness Makes You Strong" from their 2002 debut LP, Reinventing Axl Rose.

Cultivating the energy they built in their first few songs, the first half of the show smartly presented the band's faster, more confrontational material including "Cliche Guevara" and "From Her Lips To God's Ears (The Energizer)." Sensing the crowd's fatigue after nonstop moshing for 20 minutes, the band slowed things down with a very well-received rendition of the lead single off New Wave, "Thrash Unreal."

The crowd's rest was short-lived, however, as Tom Gabel and company followed that with their frantic protest song, "White People For Peace." Even the flanks of the audience were not spared from the mosh pit as they proceeded through "Problems," from 2005’s Searching For A Former Clarity, and "Sink Florida Sink," which found an eager audience singing along.

Against Me! wrapped up their first set with the final song off New Wave, the seminal track, "The Ocean." The surrealistic, dreary song translated perfectly in the live setting which found the band extending the breakdown after the first two verses before the track's climatic finish.

If the audience had one complaint against the band's first set, it would have been that they only played one song off what most punk purists consider their best album, Reinventing Axl Rose. That was quickly remedied after a short encore break which found frontman Tom Gabel returning to the stage solo to lead the crowd in a sing-along of "Baby, I'm An Anarchist."

Trading his signature Rickenbacker guitar for an acoustic for the duration of the encore, Gabel was joined by the rest of the band as they dusted off one of their oldest tracks, "What We Worked For," from 2001’s Crime EP. The evening came to a close with one of Reinventing Axl Rose's more anthemic tunes, "Walking Is Still Honest."

As the tired, hoarse and bruised crowd slowly exited the Majestic Theatre, those in attendance all agreed that Against Me! and their openers provided one of the best, most well-rounded shows in recent Madison history.

In staying attached to their aggressive, confrontational roots while simultaneously broadening their musical horizons, Against Me! seek to bring their sound to a larger listening population that has been inundated with prepackaged uninteresting sludge for too long. In ridding their music of this waste, Against Me! are staying true to the original punk ideals that have been so warped over the years and remain one of the most interesting and unique acts in music today.