Pop Music Reviews : L-7 Serves Up a Moist, Intense Set at the Roxy

The longer Hollywood grunge masters L-7 stay together, the sloppier they get--but in a good way. At the Roxy on Wednesday night, the guitars howled, the riffs were idiot-simple, the vocals approached the wolverine intensity of Stooges-era Iggy, and young woman after young woman climbed up on the stage and dove into the moiling crowd.

The newest thrash-group star on the Sub Pop Records roster, L-7 is not only the wildest live all-female band anybody can think of, but one of the hardest-rocking groups, period. This was the quartet’s biggest Los Angeles show in months, and the packed club reigned sweat.

In comparison, the headlining Lemonheads--best-known for their punky version of Suzanne Vega’s “Luka”--play precise, Husker Du-flavored power pop, spare, unpretentious and just a little too jangly for their own good. The Boston trio seems to have bad luck with opening acts: last year it headlined over Mudhoney, another Sub Pop band that blew them off the stage.

Lemonheads, dominated by school-boy cute singer-guitarist-songwriter Evan Dando, isn’t bad exactly, even if the new countrified material isn’t quite up to the chunky college radio stuff the band is best known for. It’s just a tad too earnest and dull.