As Damon Gough, aka Badly Drawn Boy, walked out onto the Avalon stage with his four-piece backing band, you couldn’t help but think what an unlikely rock star he is.

Adored by critics and fans in both the UK and America, Gough, who hails from Manchester, England, looks like someone’s burnt-out older brother. Permanently adorned in a knit cap that is pulled down almost below his eyes and about three-weeks worth of scraggly facial growth, he looks more likely to be skilled at salvaging Frito crumbs from the rug than writing some of the most lusciously arranged, delicate pop songs in years.

But Gough has done just that. He vaulted to fame as Badly Drawn Boy in 2000 with the release of his debut album, The Hour of Bewilderbeast, which landed him both a Gap commercial and the coveted British Mercury Prize. Instead of releasing a proper sophomore LP, and maybe to alleviate the pressure of following-up such a well received album, Gough wrote and recorded the soundtrack to the Hugh Grant film, “About A Boy.”

With all that behind him, Badly Drawn Boy will release Have You Fed the Fish?, his sort-of second album, on Nov. 5 — a fitting motivation for his current tour.

The first time Badly Drawn Boy ever performed in Boston, at the Paradise roughly two years ago, he stumbled through a nearly two-hour set that bordered at times on drunken incoherence. And that is when he only had one album of recorded material.

This time around, he gave another marathon performance for the half-full Avalon crowd, but one marked less by drunken stupor and more by actually playing the songs— lots of songs.

Gough and his backing band opened with two new songs, one entitled “40 Days and 40 Fights,” before settling into some older material, such as “A Peak You Reach,” “Silent Sigh” and “Something To Talk About,” from “About A Boy,” as well as “Everybody’s Stalking” from Bewilderbeast.

Gough was a true rock showman — a ceaseless parade of one-liners, handshakes and compliments for the crowd. He even held up pictures of his two children, giving you the feeling that you were now part of his extended family.

A highlight was Gough’s introduction to the song “A Minor Incident,” which he called “a sad song.” When this declaration elicited a chorus of sentimental “ah’s” from the crowd, Gough shot back, not missing a beat: “Let’s not get all chummy. This isn’t a Coldplay gig.”

The first half of the set was mostly material from About A Boy until the band played consecutive covers-a bizarre smooth-jazz version of “Let The Sunshine In,” from the “Hair” soundtrack, and “Thunder Road,” by Gough’s idol, Bruce Springsteen.

After the first hour, the band took an intermission (which Gough referred to as “a five-minute recession”) that seemed to sap away any energy the audience had going. But when they returned, they played Bewilderbeast’s crowd-pleasing singles, “The Shining” and “Once Around the Block.”

And the show just kept going. And going. Gough took requests, sang directly to audience members, almost lost the crowd by asking if what made them so great was “living in New York’s shadow” and kept playing song after song, including the title track off his new album.

Badly Drawn Boy’s set was a grueling affair that had its ups and downs. When the band came back from its “recession,” Gough looked out into the crowd and said, “They don’t make shows like this anymore.” Whether that’s a good thing, however, is completely open to interpretation.