Life in a Shattered Mirror With Throwing Muses

It’s ironic that Throwing Muses’ current single is titled “Dizzy.” Its bounce ‘n’ hook quality typifies the way the band has added solid footing to a style that was previously a musical and emotional equivalent of vertigo.

But, as the young, Boston-based quartet showed Saturday at the Palace, it’s not exactly moving into Debbie Gibson territory either. The Muses’ songs still see life reflected in a shattered mirror, with music and lyrics carrying jagged, fragmented glimpses of confusion and torment. The new elements just make the package stronger. In the hourlong set, the Muses were fighting back instead of falling and flailing.

Bobbing her cherubic face from side to side as she alternately mumbled, sang and shrieked, primary singer-songwriter Kristin Hersh was as riveting a figure--and as effective a portrayer of a particularly female brand of anguish--as Sinead O’Connor.

The two songs written and sung by guitarist Tanya Donelly were no less impressive. Nor was the band’s playing, with the hazy guitar interplay of Donelly and Hersh solidly anchored by bassist Leslie Langston and drummer David Narcizo. If the Muses’ music keeps evolving at this rate, the prospects are, well, dizzying.