Some Icy Chills From New Zealand

Aptly named, the Chills play music about the big chill--slipping mortal coils, that is--and a lot of little chills as well, yet they do it with enough underlying warmth and resolve that it somehow never seems remotely morbid. Never entirely shedding the icy reserve their moniker would indicate, yet never aloof or depressive, the Chills--who headlined two Roxy shows Friday--are like the shivers you suddenly get in the midst of a fever, simultaneously discomforting and oddly pleasurable. We should all get so sick.

Like his hero Brian Wilson, who “just wasn’t made for this world,” lead Chill Martin Phillipps seeks relief from it--through childhood fantasies, saving relationships or, yes, death (the dreamy “Heavenly Pop Hit,” in which he finds it’s a wonderful afterlife). Among the acclaimed New Zealand quintet’s first set Friday, only “Heavenly” proved especially hooky. Better yet, though, were the uncommonly lovely 6/4 harmonics of “Effloresce and Deliquesce.” If the Chills seem to run both hot and cold, lukewarm never sounded so good.