POP MUSIC REVIEW : Gut-Wrenching Grace From a Hard-Luck Seattle Quartet

The quartet 7 Year Bitch titled its third album “Gato Negro,” invoking the black cat in what might be a wry attempt to escape some of the bad luck that’s dogged the group during its four-year existence. It lost original guitarist Stefanie Sargent to a drug overdose shortly after completing its debut album. Before its sophomore effort, friend and colleague Mia Zapata, from fellow Seattle band the Gits, was murdered.

That 7 Year Bitch’s music is fraught with a fiery edge is hardly surprising. What’s remarkable is how the quartet has refined its ire into music that has as much finesse as volatility. The gut-wrenching grace is audible on “Gato,” and it filled the stage at the Whisky during the band’s show on Sunday.

Singer Selene Vigil’s forceful vocals packed a raw edge reminiscent of Joan Jett’s, only with a much darker emotional undercurrent, and her moves were as precise as a dancer’s, each gesture conveying nuances of the songs--from the occasional twitch of her fingers to bitter grimaces during the bluesy “The Midst” and agitated pacing during “M.I.A.”

The band pounded home the pointed sentiments of “Hip Like Junk” and worked moody, grinding numbers such as “Sore Subject” and “Deep in the Heart” into an even more sultry and insidious dynamic in the humid gloom of the club. Exorcisms as powerful as this deserve a lucky streak a mile wide.