Echobelly’s Energy Gets Roxy Bopping

The British band Echobelly is joyriding the so-called “new new wave,” a movement in England that has revived the lurching, pogo-perfect riff and brought fame to Wire-worshipers like Elastica.

At the Roxy on Wednesday, the band was even more deviant and disarming than it is on “On,” its current album of jagged sugar-pop. The charismatic singer Sonya Aurora Madan, playing the sweet seductress, had the room bopping to songs that stormed straight through life’s darkest corners.

Boosted by showy, strobe-light pulses and smoke billows, the diminutive diva beamed through “Pantyhose & Roses,” a shadowy song about the fatal sexual practices of a Parliament member. Guitarist Glenn Johansson’s tremolo-infused guitar and Debbie Smith’s gamier guitar punch were strong-armed foils to Madan’s high, rich vocals.

The second-billed band, Florida-based For Squirrels, regrouped as a trio last year after a van crash killed two of its members. The group was hard-pressed to rouse Madan’s admirers Wednesday, even though it delivered an emotional, honest-feeling set--if one that smacked too heavily of Nirvana’s familiar brand of angst.

Juggling twisted lyrics with ‘60s pop, brooding guitar with cool irony, both Echobelly and For Squirrels teetered between dark and light. The result was a show fueled with both high-spirited energy and dangerous risk-taking.