“The Menzingers… served up old favorites alongside cuts from their stellar latest, Rented World, with polish and precision, managing to strike just the right balance as both mature elder statesmen and scrappy kids” — Eric Bricker

There was a throwaway moment about midway through The Menzingers’ set at the Rock & Roll Hotel on Sunday night wherein a large bearded man, presumably a roadie, positioned himself in the middle of the crowd to check the band’s sound. After listening for a moment, he shot a subtle “OK” symbol up at the stage, where the band’s guitarist acknowledged it with the slightest flick of his head. He never stopped playing; you wouldn’t have noticed it if you weren’t looking for it.

It was tiny and workmanlike, but it was a moment that defined the show in my mind. Because the roadie positioned himself very deliberately, not in the middle of the frenzied, sweat- and beer-drenched mosh pit, but a few feet back, where the rest of the large crowd had gathered.

It’s a moment that encapsulates the current state of Philly punk stalwarts The Menzingers, who find themselves at somewhat of a crossroad, playing at once to both the angry teenagers throwing themselves into the pit for the first time and the older, experienced, Fugazi-loving dads who brought them.

But, judging by their Sunday night set, it’s a good fit for The Menzingers, who served up old favorites alongside cuts from their stellar latest, Rented World, with polish and precision, managing to strike just the right balance as both mature elder statesmen and scrappy kids, seen-it-all-professionals and screw-it-all punks.

The night began with rousing sets from Philly trio Cayetana (a pop-punk girl group seemingly on the verge of a well-deserved breakthrough), Canada’s PUP (whose members tore through their biggest hit, the sneering challenge of “Reservoir,” with an infectious level of pissed off energy), and indie darlings Lemuria (who fought with sound issues that never overshadowed the hookiness of gems including “Brilliant Dancer” and “Paint the Youth”).

The Menzingers took the stage at about 10 p.m., and with them came a surge of people — mostly youngish dudes, but a few oldish ladies — from all corners of the venue, morphing quickly into a small, seething knot to the classic rock power chords of “I Don’t Wanna Be an Asshole Anymore,” the massive opening track from Rented World.

From there, The Menzingers rarely let the energy dip, diving into song after song under the Rock & Roll Hotel’s trademark red lights: “Good Things,” “Burn After Writing” and “Casey” — all from 2012’s On the Impossible Past — became sing-alongs for the entire crowd, as did Rented World’s “The Talk” and the classic “Irish Goodbyes” (“When I get home/ I’ll get high alone!”).

And though the band only occasionally stopped pounding out the hits to interact with the crowd — dedicating “My Friend Kyle” to “friends who are no longer with us,” swapping beers and jokingly turning down screamed-out requests — its sense of connection to the audience was palpable, as it let anthems such as “Gates” and “In Remission” grow into wild, cathartic moments of release.

“If everyone needs a crutch, then I need a wheelchair,” the crowd shouted together, leaping up around and throwing beer to the devastating refrain of “In Remission.”

And in that moment — young and old, punks and preps, drunk and sober — all of us were one voice, gathered together in the messy, relatable beauty of having no idea where you’re going but being ready for the drive.

In that one cathartic, liberating moment, we were all The Menzingers.