Fans who have heard Deer Tick’s impressive 2010 CD “The Black Dirt Sessions” might be taken aback by the entropic energy of the band’s live performances. While the studio album is folky and melodic, driven by band leader John McCauley’s endearingly scratchy vocals and balladic songwriting, the quintet’s live act is loud and raucous, filled with all the spunk and spontaneity of The Stooges or Sex Pistols.

Take, for instance, their recent “Deervana” performance in Brooklyn, during which they covered a mishmash of old Nirvana tunes. Guitarist Ian O’Neil reports that the show was a rousing success. 

“It went pretty good. We smashed a bunch of equipment. We bowled. It was fun,” he said. “My brother came up with the idea for John to smash a guitar with a bowling ball, ’cause we played at a bowling alley. I thought that was particularly one of the coolest destructions of instruments that I’ve ever seen.” 

Local fans will have a chance to see the Providence-based band perform in Portsmouth on Saturday, July 2, when they play a rare show at The Page. The “Sneakers and Speakers Charity Concert,” presented by New Hampshire native and San Antonio Spurs basketball player Matt Bonner, will raise funds for the Boys & Girls Club. 

Past installments of Bonner’s Sneakers and Speakers benefit have included headliners like Okkervil River and The Felice Brothers—both somewhat similar in style to Deer Tick. Boston’s Bodega Girls will open the show in Portsmouth. 

Deer Tick’s behavior onstage will depend on the whims of McCauley and his band mates.

“It totally depends. There are no planned stage antics, ever, unless it’s something really stupid like wearing dresses or something like that,” O’Neil said. “On a normal show-to-show basis, any of the antics, at least recently, come from just having fun onstage and not really trying to take ourselves too seriously. But also, a lot of it comes from John just saying stupid stuff into the microphone.”  

O’Neil spoke to The Wire while gearing up for a trip to the Sled Island Festival in Calgary. The Portsmouth show is one of a handful of individual gigs they’re playing over the next couple of months. The band will not tour this summer, instead focusing on a series of festivals, including the Edmonton Folk Festival in August. 

Deer Tick has released three full-length albums to date, including “War Elephant” (2007), “Born on Flag Day” (2009),  and “The Black Dirt Sessions” (2010). They also released a 2009 EP called “More Fuel for the Fire.” 

McCauley started the band as a solo project about six years ago. He came up with the name after finding a deer tick on his scalp while hiking in Indiana with Brendon Massei of Viking Moses (McCauley is quick to note that he’d never heard of the bands Deerhoof or Deer Hunter when he named his own group). 

A native of western Massachusetts, O’Neil joined Deer Tick after moving to New York and meeting McCauley. The two hit it off. 

“It kind of just happened in a way where I was leaving another band and he wanted a new member and we were good friends, so it just kind of happened,” he said.

Rounding out the current lineup are drummer Dennis Ryan, bassist Christopher Ryan and multi-instrumentalist Rob Crowell, who plays keyboard, organ and saxophone. Although McCauley served as principle songwriter on the first three albums, O’Neil and other members have begun providing tunes, as well. Each instrumentalist brings his own diverse musical tastes and proclivities to the table.

“We all like each other’s stuff a lot,” O’Neil said. “We all write differently. We all love different stuff, so it ends up working out pretty well.”

The 23-year-old O’Neil takes inspiration from musicians new and old. “Neil Young is my favorite guitar player, for sure,” he said. “I think Ian Felice (of The Felice Brothers) is a really cool guitar player. Very strange, but very cool.”

The group recently finished recording a new album, which is due out this fall. It features a number of guest musicians, including all the members of Baltimore band J Roddy Walston and the Business. Asked how it compares to “The Black Dirt Sessions,” O’Neil said the new disc is “definitely louder.”

“Some of the songs have more chords than our last album,” he added. “People who have seen us live a bunch probably will understand when it comes out. Maybe not people who have just heard our records.”

Deer Tick’s sound reflects an eclectic array of influences. McCauley’s voice is a cross between Bob Dylan and Kurt Cobain. His songs, similarly, showcase an intersection of alt-country folk and grungy punk. And while the former is represented heavily on “The Black Dirt Sessions,” the latter is more evident in the new work. 

O’Neil said the band has been including five or six new songs in their live sets, while mostly avoiding tunes from “Dirt Sessions.”

“We don’t do a lot of those, actually,” he said. “Our live shows tend to be more rockin’, and a lot of those songs are on the mellower side.”

The group is also known to play a wide range of covers, lately incorporating songs by The Replacements and Michael Hurley into their repertoire. 

But it’s hard telling what to expect in Portsmouth. Although local fans may anticipate a wild carnival atmosphere, with McCauley staggering drunk and pantless around the stage, O’Neil warns against coming in with expectations of buffoonery.

“No, don’t do that, because then we won’t do wild stuff. If you ask us to, then we’ll get weirded out and won’t do anything like that,” he said. “If people aren’t really into it, then we might even get nervous and do stupid shit out of that. I think we’re just regular human beings who react like anybody would in any situation.” 

The 21-plus show begins at 7 p.m. on July 2 at The Page, 172 Hanover St., Portsmouth. The cover charge is $5.