POP MUSIC REVIEWS : Veruca Salt’s Lasting Effect

It’s always nice when a potential novelty act turns out to be more than just a one-off, and that’s exactly what has happened with Chicago’s Veruca Salt. The quartet plays bittersweet, immediate pop songs that run miles deep.

Outside the context of its debut album “American Thighs,” however, Veruca’s initial hit “Seether” left many thinking the band was about as fluffy and contrived as Juliana Hatfield.

But the still-underrated band, which got its start less than two years ago, has consistently shown in its raw performances that there is an incredibly individual force at its core. Veruca Salt’s show Friday at the Palace proved one more earmark in the band’s growth.

Singers and guitarists Louise Post and Nina Gordon hit chilling vocal harmonies despite their far-flung styles, while the music went from ferociously thick to eerily delicate. Though the band screwed up and improvised often, it doesn’t try to make sloppiness a virtue. It is working hard at getting better.

Post’s guttural voice intermingled with Gordon’s surreal high-pitch, bringing the listener into a strange sonic realm where the grit of reality collides with the fanciful rush of fantasy. The pair swept the gamut of human emotion as well, in tones and lyrics full of resentment, contentment and an odd sense of victory.

Veruca Salt has risen from the legions of faceless college rock bands, but when blunt haircuts and grungy guitar work go the way of the Pet Rock, the band will likely survive: Its sense of style and feel seem too strong to be rendered obsolete.