“Say I’m old-fashioned, say I’m over the hill,” Bob Seger sang at the TD Garden on Saturday. “Today’s music ain’t got the same soul. I like that old time rock and roll.”

The soldout crowd agreed, at least with the part about the music. Seger’s Silver Bullet Band and Saturday’s opener the J. Geils Band ruled their respective home strongholds of Detroit and Boston (and vice versa) in the late ’70s and early ’80s, animating earthy blues-based rock that appealed to a working-class ethos. So it made perfect sense for both to return to the (new) Garden on the same bill.

Of course much has changed over the past 30 years. Seger’s closer to the supposed relic he sang about in 1979’s “Old Time Rock and Roll.” Now 69, a step ahead of Geils Band elders in age, the grey-haired Seger appears happy to live at his own pace. He surfaces every few years to tour behind a new album (though there’s word this may be his last ride), his Silver Bullet Band down to sax foil Alto Reed and bassist Chris Campbell as original members. And the Geils Band’s national profile has slid up and down under a part-time rebirth without new music, though frontman Peter Wolf maintains a fine solo career. An acrimonious split with namesake guitarist Jay Geils didn’t help, even if local axe heroes Duke Levine and Kevin Barry join drummer Tom Arey in punching the right notes.

So this was Seger’s tour, with the Geils Band merely in support. The hometown icons did their best, packing 10 tunes into their 45 minutes. If not the dervish of old, the dancing Wolf flashed showmanship and finesse as he worked the larger stage in a sparkly jacket, while Magic Dick still blew his stratospheric harp licks. The pace slipped into mid-tempo for hits “Give It To Me” (boosted by its closing jam), “Centerfold” and “Love Stinks,” but raveups like “Detroit Breakdown” and “Looking for a Love” helped keep the Geils Band’s houseparty on track.

For his part, Seger more than held his own across his two-hour, 21-song set, beaming that megawatt smile and pumping his fists in the air, while his grainy voice still rang true (if at times overpowered by his 14-piece band or fans singing along). Granted, after the opening stretch, Seger sat down for nearly every other song. He strummed acoustic guitar on tunes like “Mainstreet,” “Like a Rock” (resuscitated live with Rob McNelley’s neat slide guitar), the Wilco/Woody Guthrie cover “California Stars” and the inevitable “Night Moves.” And he played piano for the stripped-down “We’ve Got Tonight” (which drew a big ovation and a bigger grin) and “Turn the Page,” one of the most affecting songs about life on the road. “Here I go, playing star again. There I go, turn the page,” Seger sang, and his folksy rapport with the crowd suggested that he’s not in the business for the star turn anyway.

However, rather than a mere concession to age, Seger’s balladeer mode was part of the dynamic fabric woven by his large band of moveable pieces, echoing Bruce Springsteen’s likewise-cushioned E Street reboot. Driven by drummer Don Brewer from Grand Funk Railroad (particularly on nugget “Travelin’ Man”), the group often included three female backup singers and a four-man horn section. They peaked on rockers like “Hollywood Nights” and “Detroit Made,” a John Hiatt cover that opens Seger’s new album Ride Out, fitting for a mostly Michigan-born, now partly Nashville-based, touring band.

Seger, whose music could partly be seen as a precursor to modern country (making his recent TV pairing with Jason Aldean a natural match), added a fiddler for other songs, including “The Fireman’s Talkin,’” about his brother-in-law who’s a Phoenix firefighter. That was another down-to-earth touch, as was a Stevie Ray Vaughan tribute (even if Seger mistakenly called the late guitarist’s band the Fabulous Thunderbirds) with the new, closely manufactured “Hey Gypsy.” Detroit’s old-time rocker, who weaves back to Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun Arena with the J. Geils Band again this Saturday, covered the bases with humility and personality for any age.