The Plain White T's played Hempstead Hall Saturday night.

The Plain White T’s took the stage Saturday night at Hempstead Hall two weeks before the start of a national tour that will have them criss-crossing the U.S. to promote their new album which has already spawned a single, “Happy,” released on May 24.

Lead singer Tom Higgenson several times introduced new songs from the album, asking the audience to indicate with thumbs up whether they were good or not. He was being too modest, frankly, because each of the new songs abounded in hooks and infectious choruses that drew effectively on Higgenson’s McCartneyesque and seemingly invincible high-register exploits. As the rhythm section and electric/acoustic guitar strode down a blue-sky promenade in major key sunlight, Higgenson’s high tenor rose above them as a bubblegum-colored balloon with a knowing smile.

The lead guitarist Tim Lopez contributed about three songs to the evening, each a bit more trippingly acoustic than the other proceedings and a remarkably flexible falsetto.

A mom brought a toddler named Delilah and sat in front of the stage displaying a sign requesting the T’s July 2007 number one hit, “Hey There, Delilah,” a song written by Higgenson after he met a cross-country runner with that first name in 2002 and told her he had a song for her.  She put him off because she had a boyfriend, but he still went home and wrote it, burning her a copy on disc in 2004 (she still wasn’t going for it, though) and eventually adding it to the T’s 2005 EP and 2006 album Every Second Counts. (She did go with Higgenson to the 2008 Grammys, in Staples Center finally, where the song was nominated for Song of the Year and Duo/Group Vocal Performance of the Year.)

After a diverse set of sweet and earnest alternative pop with occasional forays into grunge and folk, the rest of the five-piece band left the stage, leaving Higgenson alone with his acoustic in the spotlight to reward mom and daughter Delilah and sign with the child’s namesake big hit, which he turned in admirably. If Higgenson couldn't convince the cross-country runner, he sure convinced those attending Saturday night.

After it was over, the t-shirt line in the Hempstead Hall lobby was as long as I’ve ever seen it.

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