Irreverent Tammy Lang Feels the Spirit, Most of the Time

You’ve heard about Christian ministries seeking “hipper” ways to reach the young folk with skateboard rallies and whatnot, but nobody blurs the line between sin and salvation so impiously as Miss Tammy Faye Starlite & the Angels of Mercy.

Starring in this musical parody-cum-commentary, which came to the Silverlake Lounge on Wednesday, New York-based singer-songwriter Tammy Lang made a fitting country-gospel siren with her glittery makeup and fluffy blond ‘do. The songs from her current EP, “On My Knees,” offered some satisfying rips at a genre always ripe for caricature. But anyone who’s really saved might have heard only blasphemy and bigotry in her highly ironic sermonizing, which, among other things, celebrated incest and equated spiritual and sexual ecstasy.

Swinging nimbly from tender balladry to bluesy boogie, the band remained low-key, but Starlite’s quavery vocals were often too shrill, even given the context. Her erotic entreaties to the Lord grew tiresome, but she truly shone in more subversive feminist moments, including the abortion foe’s anthem “God Has Lodged a Tenant in My Uterus” and a risque variation on the Deana Carter hit “Did I Shave My Legs for This?”

Still, the hourlong set proved less than captivating, as the wittier originals were padded with lukewarm, “spiritual”-ized takes on such hits as Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child o’ Mine.” Better she should ratchet up the revival-meeting asides she spouted effortlessly between songs. Either that or pray for more inspiration.