The Del Fuegos always seemed like a band on a mission, hipping Boston’s punk audience to the joys of older rock & roll. But according to frontman Dan Zanes, their only real mission was to have a good time.

They succeeded for sure. “When I look back at my life in those years, all I can say is ‘Man, when I was in my 20’s I got to hang out with these cool guys, we played all these shows and we got to live the dream that everybody else was hoping for.’ I see it now as this incredible privilege. Somehow we thought we were entitled, and now I realize that was insanity. There were certainly people more talented than me, and bands that were better than The Del Fuegos. But we had all those opportunities and I see it now as an incredible gift.”

The good times will continue when the classic Del Fuegos lineup— brothers Dan and Warren Zanes on vocals and guitars, Tom Lloyd on bass and Woody Giessman on drums — play two shows at City Winery this Saturday. The band’s ‘80s experiences resembled that of many Boston bands at the time: They were royalty at the Rat, got signed to a major label with initial acclaim, toured extensively and even did a beer commercial, before burning out at decade’s end. But the Fuegos had something most of their peers didn’t have; a love and knowledge of pre-Beatles American rock.

“I look back at our old setlist and I’ll see something like ten Elvis Presley songs,” Zanes said. “We had one thing we all loved and that was American music; we wanted to be an updated version of the Drifters or the Crickets. It was real naive and confident; we thought that’s just what you did if you were in a rock band. What was fun about Boston was that the community was so strong and supportive around us, so we had this unrealistic confidence that everything was going to work out fine — and it did, before we wound up setting the house on fire. That kind of excitement never came again and in some ways I’m glad it didn’t, because it can be so intoxicating.”

The four Fuegos have reunited a few times over the years, including a daytime show in Connecticut last summer, but this will be the first show in Boston proper for awhile. But the band members have hardly been invisible in their other lives. Drummer Giessman founded the addiction treatment facility Right Turn and is still active in that world. Dan Zanes carves out a niche for hip children’s music (winning a Grammy in 2007) and now performs all-ages folk music with his wife Claudia. “We like to call it community music, so that people without kids will still feel invited to the party. Claudia is also a music therapist so man, we know how music can have healing powers in the times we live in.”

As for brother Warren Zanes, you’ve probably seen his name lately: His book on Bruce Springsteen, “Deliver Me From Nowhere,” is in the process of being turned into a high-profile movie. Says Dan, “I was on the set the other day and I said to my brother, ‘Could you imagine any of this happening when you wrote the book? I’m seeing thousands of people and there’s Bruce Springsteen in the corner, and over there is Steven Spielberg. And I know that like any artist, Warren had his moments of self-doubt, wondering what his work was leading to. But I love a good success story, and he truly is one.”