POP MUSIC REVIEW : Etheridge Rings Rafters at Roxy

Near the end of “You Used to Love to Dance,” the second song Melissa Etheridge performed Tuesday at the Roxy, the raspy-voiced singer did a little sha-la-la . . . oh-oh-oh thing that was pure Ronnie Spector via Bruce Springsteen. That’s how big her voice is.

And that’s how big the emotions of hurt, loss, anger and longing are in her songs. And that’s how on Tuesday--the first show of a five-night stand--she confirmed last year’s predictions that she’s a bona fide star, in it for the long haul.

With her second album, “Brave and Crazy,” about to pass the 500,000-sales mark after just a month in release, Etheridge and her versatile, power-packed three-piece band were opening to a crowd that included many who had been following her since she started playing in out-of-the-way Southland bars. As those long-timers know, it’s on stage where Etheridge is at her best. Now she’s grown to the point that her stage command and charisma are ready for the big halls, but still intimate enough to work in the cozy Roxy.

There’s plenty of room for growth. Etheridge’s songs still cover a limited emotional range, she sometimes relies on cliches and homilies in her lyrics and the ballads tend to get overwrought. But her smart and sexy choice of Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” to sandwich between the big, how-could-you-betray-me closing set of “Similar Features” and “Like I Do” showed that she’s thinking in the right direction.

The second-billed Subdudes, a New Orleans-originated, Denver-based quartet, plays appealing, stripped-down ‘70s rock, drawing heavily on the Band and the Doobie Brothers. But they could use more of the brittle distinction of the former and less of the bar-band professionalism of the latter.