Dandy Warhols Mesmerize With Their Moody Spectacle

Whipping up a potent sonic speedball of classic dark-side rock, the Portland, Ore.-based Dandy Warhols drew a capacity crowd to the El Rey Theatre on Wednesday for a moody, psychedelic extravaganza complete with smoky haze, strobe lights, a shifting video backdrop, and two half-naked go-go boys swiveling Hula-Hoops around their taut six-packs.

Maybe sex and drugs still have a place in rock ‘n’ roll after all.

Led by shirtless singer-guitarist Courtney Taylor, the quartet (with an extra guitarist) rollicked and rambled for an hour and 40 minutes, performing sinuous, trashy, melodic tracks from its new album, “Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia,” along with earlier works. Ironic without being overly smirking, such tunes as “Bohemian Like You” copped familiar riffs from the players’ favorite Velvet Underground, T. Rex, Rolling Stones, etc. albums. Yet somehow they made the music theirs.

Unfortunately, a poor sound mix diminished Taylor’s droning vocals amid the three guitars, pulsing keyboards and ticking percussion. This was particularly disappointing during a solo acoustic turn, as his melancholy rendition of singer-songwriter Kristin Hersh’s “Your Ghost” was nearly obliterated by audience chatter.

Limitations surfaced when the band seemed to do the same song three times in a row, and there was some needless cowpunk-salvation shtick involving keyboardist Zia McCabe’s spanking two audience members. She also stayed on stage after the encore noodling aimlessly. But ultimately, the glorious moments lingered longer.