BONES RATTLE

Fetchin Bones is a Southern band with a difference. Young, eccentric and weird around the edges, the North Carolinians have little to do with the rippling guitars and obscure vocals of R.E.M. Turning up the temperature at Al’s Bar Friday night, the co-ed quintet resembled escapees from some modernistic, avant-garde Dogpatch and delivered the kind of electric charge needed to keep America’s independent rock scene full of juice.

Hope Nicholls, the Bones’ wailing singer, is an intriguing underground personality. A wild-eyed cross between X’s Exene Cervenka and Suburban Lawns’ Su Tissue, Nicholls unleashed a plaintive country yowl tempered by a raucous, Janis Joplin intensity as she parodied bourgeois living in songs like “Kitchen of Life.” With Nicholls’ loopiness fueled by roaring twin guitars and a full-tilt rhythm section, Fetchin Bones’ set was a long, unholy mess and unruly fun. The group plays the Lingerie Friday.