Let it never be said that Spring Fever 2002 did not appeal to the snootiest of rock snobs. Nadine, St. Louis’ acclaimed roots-pop band, warmed the stage for the Gin Blossoms and threatened to supersede the headliners.

The grooves may have been a tad too mellow for the penultimate spot an outdoor festival, but Nadine rocked in their own cerebral way for close to an hour on Friday night. They played a mix of old favorites and new songs from Strange Seasons, which will be released in July on Undertow Records.

The band opened with “End of the Night,” a subtle ode to joy of life’s great pleasure, namely rolling grass and feeling all right.

But before you peg Nadine as a stoner band, listen to Steve Rauner’s lovingly textured guitar leads and Adam Reichmann’s yearning yowl and realize that there are more powerful forces at work than mere marijuana.

Nadine is no stranger to the Spring Fever stage, as they played at last year’s festivities to a shamefully tiny crowd. This year’s later time slot helped attendance a bit, and one could see heads bobbing and toes tapping all throughout the nearby beer tent.

Though Reichmann affirmed his love of the St. Louis Blues hockey team, he still had the gall to play a song called “Chicago.” But as the Blackhawks had fallen to the Blue Notes in the playoffs the day before the show, no one held any grudges. Heck, they even name-check the fantastic Centro-Matic in the song.

At the prompting of the security guards in the front of the stage, the crowd moved up toward the front of the stage during “Poor Man’s Vacation.”

It was a nice gesture, though Nadine aren’t quite the fist-pumping rock band the security guards might be used to. If nothing else, it helped to distribute body heat on the chilly April night.

The mood was kept mostly light, but the trip-hoppy “Angela” took the sound in a moody, beautifully pensive direction. It may not have raised excitement among the juiced-up student population, but those who were paying attention enjoyed one of the band’s most transcendent moments.

Although there were requests for the anti-Monsanto “Losing Track,” Reichmann took the opportunity to curse the chemical conglomerate before launching into the set-closing “When I was a Boy,” a track off of 2001’s Lit Up From the Inside and one of Nadine’s most finely crafted and hardest-rocking songs.

Though they didn’t produce as much excitement as the Gin Blossoms, Nadine showed the Spring Fever crowd what American rock should sound like. Let’s hope they were paying attention.