Mayer Hawthorne and his band The Country performed a heaping helping of hip hop and just a little bit of his crowd-pleasing retro-soul music during a 90-minute concert Sept. 20 at The Orange Peel in downtown Asheville.

Between 500 and 600 fans attended —and women outnumbered men. Most of the attendees appeared to be in their 20s, but there also was an unusually wide spread of age groups present, likely because of Hawthorne’s cross-generational appeal from his success at writing and singing 2013-style songs, with 1960s-era soul inflections.

At least some of the women and older fans, particularly, appeared to be delighted when Hawthorne performed a few of his soul hits — and a bit perplexed, if not irritated, with his decided penchant for playing hip hop songs.

However, for a number of the fans at the concert, it was no big deal and they seemed to groove no matter what Hawthorne and his band performed.

Preceded by the Superhumanoids, Hawthorne’s four-piece backup band appeared about 10:07 p.m., as the lights dimmed. The Country included a guitarist, bassist, keyboardist and drummer.

“Is everybody feeling OK tonight?” an announcer said. “We’ve got a great treat for you tonight. All the way from Detroit, Mayer Hawthorne!”

As the crowd cheered, Hawthorne bounded onto the stage clad in a well-tailored tan suit with a white shirt, accentuated by a bright metallic-gold bowtie. His hair was in a pompadour. In the background and above the band was a set featuring a large red broken heart.

 Hawthorne and crew launched into “Physicality,” followed by “Back Seat Love” and “A Long Time.”

The crowd was into the show, as Hawthorne occasionally showed off his vocal pyrotechnics, particularly his ability to shift — seemingly effortlessly — from his regular voice to falsetto and back again. His silky smooth voice especially was showcased in the soul songs he performed.

Besides providing lead vocals, Hawthorne also played guitar or keyboard at various times.

Flanked by his guitarist and bassist, Hawthorne and his other two frontme performed some eye-popping choreography together, as they moved back and forth in unison — to the crowd’s delight.

Definitely his best performances of the night were on the soul songs, including a song or two from his “Strange Arrangement” album, such as “Wish It Would Rain,” and his smash hit from earlier, “The Walk.”

At one point during the show, Hawthorne shot a picture of the crowd. Then he asked everyone to shoot pictures of him, as he posed, making funny and serious faces.

After that, Hawthorne said, “Ladies and gentlemen, picture time is officially over.... We’re going to pretend like we’re actually at the show right now.... We’re all going to party together with our own eyes,” as opposed to looking through a camera lens at the show.

He performed “Can’t Go for That” and transitioned — medley-style — into “The Walk,” his most famous song, which drew the biggest cheer of the night from the crowd. 

He had the crowd — womenas well as men — singing merrily along with the refrain:

“You walk those high heels, baby, right out of my life....”

After playing the happy and soulful “The Walk,” the group’s lead guitarist launched into some Jimi Hendrix-style riffs — and the crowd, which heard the song of the night, (“The Walk”), started thinning out a bit.

He later closed the show with “Where Does This Door Go?” but the crowd wanted more, so Hawthorne and his bandmates soon reappeared to perform some more songs during the encore.

Before performing the encore, Hawthorne told the crowd, “Whether you guys know it or not, I’m glad y’all stuck around because you’re going to be part of a ... video. We had about 50 cameras out there” to film the action.

Then he said, “The next one is my favorite song to sing. It’s an oldie-but-goodie. It’s one you sing to your girlfriend or wife when you’ve messed up.”

Hawthorne then sat on the edge of the stage and sang “May I Come In,” a novelty song which he seemed to enjoy more than the crowd.

However, Hawthorne finished with some hip hop songs — and a little bit of soul — to keep the crowd on its feet as he left the stage to sustained applause.