Doe’s Show a Concert for Privileged Few

FULLERTON — Whether facing an audience of 5,000 or 50, John Doe projects an onstage attitude that says playing music is a passion and a privilege, not just a vocation.

It’s a sensibility that has continued undimmed through a 20-year career highlighted by a lengthy tenure as co-leader of Los Angeles punk band X. Now the captain of a solo project called the John Doe Thing, he continues to prove that age, family life and a rural existence in Ventura County have done little to diminish his potent rock ‘n’ roll instincts.

At Club 369 on Sunday, the John Doe Thing delivered a bracing 45-minute set consisting mostly of new Doe compositions. The rockers throbbed with a barely containable intensity, while the slower material ebbed and flowed with the type of melodic drama that has come to define many of Doe’s bittersweet tales.

The quartet (singer-guitarist Doe, Rage Against the Machine drummer Brad Wilk, guitarist Noah Lenbenzon and bassist Bob Thompson) locked into a tight, synchronized groove despite limited rehearsal time. The recently formed group also reached back to Doe’s last solo album, “Kissing So Hard,” for supercharged renditions of “Love Knows” and “Safety.”

The fact that only a handful of patrons were on hand to witness the band’s house-quaking performance didn’t seem to bother Doe and his crack compatriots. Between songs, he freely joked about the sparse turnout, which helped turn the whole affair into a kind of cozy, living-room party.