One can’t technically say that The Breeders are in the midst of a reunion tour. The band never so much broke up as underwent numerous lineup shifts that rendered Pixies bassist Kim Deal its only permanent member. Still, store their May 9th show at the Royale carried with it the atmosphere of a long-awaited return. 2013 is the 20-year anniversary of Last Splash, The Breeders’ cult-classic and unlikely Platinum-certified album, and Deal has recruited the circa-1993 lineup of drummer Jim Macpherson, bassist Josephine Wiggs and guitarist/twin sister Kelley Deal to perform the record in its entirety on tour.

Nostalgic full-album shows are something of a double-edged sword for bands like The Breeders. The readily sold-out Royale was packed with fans eager to revisit a favorite album, and for those who see Last Splash as one of the defining records of the 90s, hearing it in full was a pretty big deal. The fixed setlist also puts constraints on the band though, by tying them down to nightly performances of songs that probably should’ve stayed in the studio.

Last Splash is an endearingly weird record with a short attention span, and against the odds, most of it works pretty well as a rock show. The mid-song build-up of opener “New Year” effectively carried its momentum into “Cannonball,” the record’s iconic lead single. Bouncy, propulsive songs like “Divine Hammer” also went down well, and Kelley’s acerbic lead vocal on “I Just Wanna Get Along” was just as effective as its original album version. The intertwining voices and guitars of the Deal sisters were the standout technical qualities of the show all night.

Last Splash’s general weirdness did come back to haunt the band on a few awkwardly performed cuts. The quiet and vaguely spooky “Mad Lucas” felt especially precarious, threatening to collapse under its own lumbering weight more than a few times. Part of the record’s appeal is the off-the-cuff atmosphere that allows that type of oddball song to fall together and feel right in context, but it’s a formidable challenge to translate that to the stage. The band did earn points for effort though, and the show’s failings were easy to overlook when Wiggs, Macpherson and the Deals were having as much fun as they appeared to be on stage.

Truthfully, Last Splash was never “that record” for me, and the other major drawback to these full-album shows is that they can leave non-obsessive fans feeling slightly out of the loop. A crowd of Breeders fanatics clearly got what they wanted out of this night though, and then some. Founding member Tanya Donelly, who had left the band by Last Splash, stepped in for a few backup vocals and an encore showing of the band’s “Happiness is a Warm Gun” cover that could only be described as charmingly disastrous. The Breeders will be taking Last Splash on the road for much of the summer, but this Boston date still felt like a special one. The reunion of two lineups of a major force of 90s indie rock in one show isn’t a common sight, and even a casual fan could appreciate that.