With the Union Jack of England hanging from the theater balcony — in a venue that he described as a medieval British castle — singer and songwriter Billy Bragg appeared to be right at home during his performance Saturday at the State Theatre.

Bragg’s fire and passion, his driving force throughout his 30 years in the music business, saved the show from a weak crowd that consisted of a surprising amount of gray hair and sweaters. Bragg’s showmanship helped him battle through technical difficulties as well, which caused his microphone and amplifier to cut out.

Bragg began his show after a nearly 45-minute set played by the Watson Twins, bounding onto the stage with a blue Fender Telecaster already strapped to his body.

He immediately started banging out power chords with the speed and volume that could get any punk-rock fan to start swinging his or her arms. Most of the lyrics of Bragg’s first song were inaudible because of the technical difficulties with the microphone, but everything was fixed by the time he broke into his working-class anthem “To Have and to Have Not,” off of his 1983 album “Life’s a Riot With Spy Vs. Spy.”

Bragg’s politics were a perfect fit for the Ithacans who tend to come from the left side of the political spectrum. No one seemed put off by Bragg’s fiery words about dismantling the government and destroying capitalism. Though Bragg is from England, he immediately related to the Ithaca audience by voicing his support for Barack Obama.

A Bragg show differs greatly from listening to a Bragg album. While his politics come across in his individual songs, at a Bragg concert each song is prefaced with a story on his history playing music, a politically charged rant or a humorous anecdote. At times, Bragg became a bit long-winded with his lectures but would immediately make up for it with the passion he put into each of his songs.

At the show’s halfway point, Bragg traded his electric guitar for an acoustic on a set of songs off of his 1998 collaboration album “Mermaid Avenue” with the indie band Wilco. “Mermaid Avenue” was a concept developed by Woody Guthrie’s daughter Norah, who employed Bragg and Wilco to go through her father’s unpublished song lyrics and put a tune to them. While the acoustic set was a change of pace from the punk-rock sound of his other music, Bragg did an excellent job paying tribute to one of the greatest folk singers in American history.

One of the highlights of this set was a song titled “Ingrid Bergman” about Woody’s strong attraction to the Swedish actress. This set shined a new light on Guthrie, as most people are only aware of him as the Great Depression folk singer who wrote “This Land is Your Land.”

Bragg did not just pay tribute to Guthrie though. He also showed his respect to his punk-rock idols, The Clash, with a song titled “Old Clash Fan Fight Song.”

After his Clash tribute, Bragg closed his set with another working-class tribute song “There is Power in a Union,” off his 1986 release “Talking with the Taxman about Poetry.” Bragg left the stage to a standing ovation and quickly obliged the crowd with an encore.  

The show closed with Bragg’s most famous song, “A New England,” with Bragg encouraging the audience to sing the chorus. After he left the stage again to another standing ovation, Bragg had successfully completed his mission. He said musicians cannot change the world. They can encourage people to become engaged in progressive thoughts, and Bragg accomplished exactly that Saturday.