Mike Gent and the Figgs, who had backed up Graham Parker the night before, headlined Saturday’s show at Blueberry Hill’s Duck Room and lived up to their introduction as one of the world’s best live bands.

They also met the challenge of following to the stage St. Louis favorite Chuck Cleaver and his hot band Wussy, featuring singer-songwriter Lisa Walker.

How the Figgs could be that good and remain only a cult favorite after 20 years is a mystery. Formed in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., they have eight albums under their own banner plus three more with Parker.

Guitarist Gent, bassist Pete Donnelly and drummer Pete Hayes may be known as a power pop trio, but that label is best turned around to put the emphasis where it belongs: The Figgs are a pop power trio.

The Figgs ride the blistering guitar of Gent, whose playing incorporates a myriad of influences but sounds like nobody else. With Gent and Donnelly sharing lead vocals, the band split its set between old favorites and tracks from their most recent CD, “Follow Jean Through the Sea,” scoring early with the title cut, “Jumping Again” and “Hobble Skirt in Erie.”

Then it was into the catalogue for songs, as Gent put it, “from the 1900’s”: the Kinks-ish “Simon & Simone,” the ballad “Please Hold On” and the raucous “Gonna Get Out,” featuring a fiery bass solo from Donnelly. Other winners included the Stonesy “Back to Being,” and “City Loft Home.”

You knew Wussy would be aggressive when Burman broke a drumstick on the first downbeat of the set – and the same happened later to Messerly playing xylophone.

The relatively new band played several tunes from its only CD, “Funeral Dress” (2005), including “Conversation Lags” and the title song, as well as road-tested songs that will be on a new Wussy CD in August. One of those, “The Sun Giant Says Hey,” featured Messerly playing a melodic riff on the high strings of the bass that ordinarily would be done on guitar.

Most surprising cover of the night went to Wussy as well: Nazareth’s “Hair of the Dog.”

Two songs into his set – “Drinkin’ Days” and his classic country weeper “Horseshoe Lounge” – Cleaves also unleashed the festival’s best line, without a trace of bitterness or irony:

“I was talking to my mother today, and she asked me how my little music career was going. I said, ‘Mom – I’m opening for Wussy tonight!’ ”

Cleaves, who drew one of the biggest crowds of the evening, wove a spell with his gentle character studies of lovers and losers, including “Last of the V-8s,” “Broke Down,” “

The centerpiece of Cleaves’ set was two songs that served as eulogies for friends. Don Walser, a Western-swing legend who died in September, was remembered in the yodel-rich “Rolling Stone From Texas,” from Cleaves’ covers CD “Unsung.”

Wishbones” and the down-and-outer’s prayer for “One Good Year.”

Highlights of the set by singer-guitarist Josh Malerman, drummer Derek Berk and bassist Chad Stocker included “Maybe You’re Coming Down With It”; the ballad “N/C”; “Anything Goes,” featuring the inventive Stocker on an impressive bass solo; and “Rimbaud/Rambo” – a song about “the only two options” in one man’s life.

Malerman’s near-falsetto voice is a different but effective instrument, and he and Stocker harmonize well.

They just need to ease the pedal off the metal now and then and take a breath.