TWISTED SISTERS

If you’re looking for sly insights about the foibles and follies of modern womanhood (and manhood, for that matter), it’s hard to top the Roches. Think of them as Hannah and her sisters with perfect pitch.

Friday at the Beverly Theatre, before a wildly devoted crowd, the trio’s distinctive bent was reflected in its fashions as much as in its songs: spacey Suzzy as a miniskirted New Wave princess, Terre as a Rosanna Arquette/Rebecca De Mornay type, and quiet Maggie as a post-Pop Art middle-class Hausfrau (complete with pearls).

Many of the old favorites (including the stunning a cappella “Hallelujah Chorus”) that have been the core of their act for years have become predictable. But such new material as a song introduced as “The Anti-Sex Backlash of the ‘80s” and the enticing, soft-rockish title song from their recent Rhino Records EP “No Trespassing” showed these sisters to be as incisive and original as ever.

With a wide range of styles (from acoustic folk to high-tech pop) and their distinctive personalities, it’s hard to put a label on what the Roches do. That may be why the group is without a record label at this time.