Poe Disproves Angry Young Woman Tag

With her lurching, thrashing single “Trigger Happy Jack (Drive by a Go-Go),” singer-songwriter Poe has been tagged the latest Angry Young Woman in rock. Although it is angry, her debut album, “Hello,” is mostly concerned with how people communicate with one another and with themselves. There’s compassion in the single’s anthemic refrain, “You can’t talk to a psycho like a normal human being,” which implies you have to find another way to reach a psycho.

Poe further disproved the stereotype during her Roxy show on Sunday. The singer was gregarious and gleeful, and although the set’s highlights included the aggressive “Trigger Happy Jack” and the darkly torchy “Angry Johnny,” Poe was also engaging during relatively softer moments.

Her quartet deftly animated the album’s machine-enhanced mishmash of folk, metal, rock, alternative and hip-hop. Too many thrashing jams and heavy-metal mannerisms proved distracting, however, and Poe’s initially charming use of pop-culture references as metaphors for emotional states ultimately felt like lazy songwriting.

As engaging as Poe was, she was handily upstaged by the second-billed Eels. Led by guitarist-keyboardist E, the trio’s 40-minute set also blended technological touches and conventional instrumentation, and the songs shared with Poe some unflinching takes on unpleasant emotions, but Eels’ debut album, “Beautiful Freak,” has stronger hooks. Eels’ blend of R&B;, soul, pop, hip-hop, punk and rock churns in a misfit groove similar to Beck’s or Soul Coughing’s, but E’s songwriting displays more emotional range.

The slamming hook of the radio hit “Novocaine for the Soul” struck a despairing nerve, while E’s real potential showed in the album’s title track, a tender Gen X ballad celebrating weirdness. With E’s gentle vocal and keyboard melody, plus French horn accents, the song recalled Brian Wilson’s more eccentrically sweet moments.

* Poe, Eels and Pure play tonight at 8 at the Roxy, 9009 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. $15.50. (310) 278-9457.