By Dave Miller

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Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby almost didn't make it to their in-store gig Tuesday at Reckless Records in Wicker Park.

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Earlier in the day, an Illinois state trooper pulled them over for speeding somewhere outside Joliet. Eric, whose last name is Goulden, wound up in the back of the squad car. Eventually, the cop let him off with a warning, but the former Stiff Records rocker wasn't in a hurry to leave the vehicle loaded with law enforcement technology. "He had to ask me to leave," Goulden said. "I want a car like that."

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Goulden and Rigby were in the home stretch of their first tour promoting their adventurous new album, A Working Museum. In fact, it marked the official release date, a fact that Rigby referred to casually. "This is the party for us," she said with a hint of amusement. Added Goulden, in one of his many quick-witted quips: "I don't know if we can handle the excitement." Of course, they deserved to be playing in a proper venue, but I'm guessing their usual haunts were booked. It's to their credit they were willing to do an in-store performance in order to air some of their new songs, and the 30 or so people who attended were glad they did. And Wreckless Eric playing at Reckless Records was a cosmic coincidence.

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It was not merely a promotional appearance. Goulden and Rigby took it seriously and treated it virtually like a regular show. Four guitars, a bass, a keyboard, a computer and a big-knobbed board were set up in the close quarters of the back of the store. A homemade, cardboard sign worked as a cool, vaudeville-like marquee. When the couple took the "stage," Rigby asked the clerks if something could be done about the store's lights. "Maybe just hit the atmosphere button," she joked, and the lights in the back of the store were turned off. The only thing missing was alcohol.

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More so than in their previous stops in Chicago, this one saw Goulden and Rigby playing as a true duo. Whereas in the past they played many songs from their solo careers, this time they stuck mainly with material from their trio of albums recorded together. Their time as a married couple is now manifesting itself as a more cohesive presentation. They recently moved from France to the Catskills in New York, and, while surely they were concerned about the effects Sandy had on their home, they had others on their minds, too. "This is for our friends in New York," Rigby said, introducing "Ballad of Easy Rider" early in the set. Goulden stepped back mid-song and conjured up the power of the devastating storm with his electric guitar.

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This was a personal performance, and not just in the informality of the surroundings. Rigby dedicated "Please Be Nice to Her" to their daughters, her Hazel and Goulden's Luci. It was all the more poignant with Hazel, who lives in Chicago, standing just feet away. "When you meet her on the street/In her kinky boots," Rigby sang. "She's not as switched on as she looks." (Hazel's band, Outside World, will open for her dad's band, The dB's, on Nov. 15-16 at The Hideout.) You could imagine the careening romper "Til The Wheels Fall Off," one of the evening's highlights, as the soundtrack to the couple's run-in with the state trooper.

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The songs from their ambitious new album came in the middle of the set. The classic/modern pop of "Rebel Girl Rebel Girl" was followed by what was dubbed the "Trilogy of Terror" -- the desperate "The Doubt," dark "Days of Jack and Jill," and wistful "Genovese Bag." The sequence forms the backbone of A Working Museum, the couple's best album. Rigby's peerless songwriting and Goulden's personal punk peppered with eccentric sounds and sonic surprises continue to thrill with repeated listenings.

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The closing stretch included a killer pairing. Rigby sang the new "Do You Remember That," a play-by-play of how the two became a couple. Goulden followed with his classic "(I'd Go The) Whole Wide World," the song responsible for bringing them together. It received the biggest response of the show. Rigby's irresistible "Dancing With Joey Ramone," which is regularly played on Little Steven's Underground Garage satellite radio channel, closed the set with Rigby strumming the last note and raising her arm in tribute and earned triumph.

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