NEW BAND, OLD SPIRIT

“We’re a new band called Firehose,” said bassist Mike Watt midway through the show Friday at Club Lingerie. He was right, sort of: Firehose has only been together for a few months, and most of its stark, jagged rock/funk/jazz concoctions are of recent vintage. But Watt and drummer George Hurley were two-thirds of one of L.A.’s bravest and best bands, the Minutemen, and in many ways Firehose carries on in the bracing, uncompromising spirit that some feared was lost when Minutemen guitarist-singer D. Boon died in an auto accident last year.

With a new singer-guitarist, Ed Crawford, the trio still builds its songs around Watt’s funky, violent bass lines, and plays with such abandon that at any moment it seems equally apt to fall apart or rip into a full-bore rock ‘n’ roll anthem. If the new band lacks the astonishing assurance of the old one, and if Ed isn’t as imposing as Boon was, Firehose does make it easier to deal with the loss--quite an achievement in itself.