Pop Music Reviews : Pretty & Twisted: Intense Without Mouthing Off

Pretty & Twisted was pretty subdued in its hometown debut Thursday at the House of Blues, at least by the standards that singer Johnette Napolitano set at the helm of Concrete Blonde for a decade.

Her new trio’s music was intense enough, but the volatile singer didn’t indulge in any of her characteristic mouthing off, nor did she lead the music to the brink of the abyss.

That’s fine. Napolitano has earned the right to present herself as she is. In fact, that’s one of her strongest assets--genuine and unpredictable, she declines to wear the performer’s mask. You never know what you’re going to get.

The music on Thursday, drawn from Pretty & Twisted’s recent debut album, had a similar spirit of spontaneity. The songs have already sprouted new features since they were recorded, making them seem like living, growing things--manifestations of a life being played out in rock ‘n’ roll.

If Napolitano provides continuity with the Concrete Blonde tradition of melodious but aggressively edgy rock, guitarist Marc Moreland is at mission control as it departs into new territory. The Wall of Voodoo alumnus, often facing his amps and dropping to his knees, generated a feedback-laced tumult in which the melodic lines had to battle to keep from crumbling.

The rhythm section of Napolitano’s bass and Danny Montgomery’s drums could have hit harder, but when she let fly with her soaring wail in the escalating “Souvenir,” the set hit--and went on to sustain--a level that any band would envy.

Pretty & Twisted’s concert tonight at the Galaxy Theatre has been canceled due to Moreland’s illness.