POP REVIEW : Power Pop From Mega City Four

Sometimes you can tell a lot about a band by the way the singer positions the microphone. Some vocalists, mostly metal types and sedate folkies, tilt the mike up and sing down into it in what is probably an unconscious physical manifestation of the force or self-assurance the music is meant to convey.

Others, like Mega City Four frontman Wiz at the Whisky on Wednesday, sort of hunch under a downward-pointing mike, urgently singing up toward the ceiling in what seems almost an entreaty to the audience to pay attention. Such acts are usually singing about the foibles of love and the insecurities of life, and Mega City Four is no exception.

The British group, wrapping up its first American tour in support of the “Sebastopol Rd” album, is finally gaining mainstream recognition in its homeland for its unadorned power pop. But the Four hasn’t just jumped on the “Bandwagonesque” after watching the acclaim the similar-sounding Teenage Fanclub racked up for its album of that name.

Mega City Four has been at it for more than five years, and at the Whisky the group displayed a keen ear for melodies and a skill at presenting them crisply. Wiz’s high-pitched, almost whiny voice proved the perfect instrument to convey the emotional absolutism of the songs’ sentiments, particularly “Ticket Collector” and “Peripheral.”