Troubled troubadour Roky Erickson plays Union Transfer

Other than a muttered "thank you" or two, Roky Erickson didn't speak a word to the audience at Union Transfer on Monday night. He alternated between playing his guitar and fidgeting with it, occasionally shoving it away from himself as if it were an irritant. His fingers didn't always hit their marks, leading to a few clamorous dissonances and more than one endearing "whoops."

But after a storied decades-long battle with mental illness, it's hard to believe that Erickson can perform at all. The small but enthusiastic crowd was more than willing to overlook a few glaring imperfections to witness an unusual appearance by the troubled psychedelic-rock pioneer.

Erickson rose to prominence in the mid-1960s as frontman for the Austin, Texas, band the 13th Floor Elevators before his career was derailed by a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia followed by involuntary electroconvulsive therapy and Thorazine treatments. His mental health continued to decline in the ensuing years, until coming under the guardianship of his youngest brother in 2001.

Now 65, Erickson is rotund with a full silver beard and a mane of gray hair. He continues to evidence a tenuous relationship with the stage, frequently shrinking away from the microphone and turning away from his fans to the comfort of his backing band.

These days, that band is led by his son, Jegar Erickson, who began the show by vamping on the song "Bo Diddley's a Headhunter" before the elder Erickson strolled on to the stage. Much of the hour-long set was culled from his best-known album, the hard-rocking The Evil One (1981), with its horror movie images of vampires, demons, and two-headed dogs.

Erickson's voice showed signs of age, but the additional raggedness and gravel only seemed to bolster its raw power. On songs like "Night of the Vampire" or "Stand for the Fire Demon," that distinctive voice was still a strong, tortured howl, though it revealed a touching vulnerability on "Goodbye Sweet Dreams," a lovely ballad from his most recent album, True Love Cast Out All Evil, in 2010.

Nothing that the night's openers, Nude Beach, played would sound unfamiliar to anyone with a few Replacements albums in their collection. The Brooklyn-based trio provided an energetic half-hour set full of no-nonsense, unmemorable throwback garage rock.