Belle & Sebastian regale the Tower Theater with chamber pop

Ever since Belle & Sebastian's first albums, Tigermilk and If You're Feeling Sinister, both in 1996, the band - led by Stuart Murdoch of Glasgow, Scotland - has been nothing if not absolutely darling: the precious sound of chamber pop at its grandest, yet with something intimate in its detailed, diarylike storytelling. Think J.D. Salinger reading over a Jimmy Webb score in a breathy Scots accent.

That intelligent intimacy has drawn devotees to Belle & Sebastian albums such as 2015's Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance and rare shows such as Tuesday's gig at the Tower Theater.

Complete with auxiliary string players, this dozen-strong, bolder-than-usual version of Belle & Sebastian tackled its buoyant brand of sunny '60s AM-radio pop with giddy aplomb.

Starting with the flower-power pop of "Nobody's Empire," Murdoch prepared the crowd for worried, piercing tenderness:

Lying on my bed, I was reading French

with the light too bright for my senses

from this hiding place, life was way too much

It was loud and rough round the edges.

Murdoch then turned to the bouncy piano and humor of "I'm a Cuckoo" ("I'd rather be in Tokyo / I'd rather listen to Thin Lizzy-oh") and "Jonathan David" ("There's still room on my wooden horse for two. . . . You're still King.")

Much of the band's set was blithely jovial, set to sawing strings or acoustic guitar washes like the sad, searing "Sukie in the Graveyard." But Belle & Sebastian was not afraid to kick out the jams or create welcoming gestures. The musicians invited audience members on stage to dance. They put Rittenhouse Square in the lyrics to the ultimate townie tale, "The Boy with the Arab Strap." Vocalists Murdoch and Steve Jackson tackled deep grooves on the synth funk of "The Party Line" and the high-life guitar soul of "Perfect Couples," both tunes on Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance.

But the bright and effusive moments were where Belle & Sebastian lived loudest and best.

"Get out of the city and into the sunshine," they sang on "Legal Man," with its hippie-shake rhythm - "Get out of the office and into the springtime."