Elastica Gets Right to the Point

Justine Frischmann doesn’t brook excess--neither the emotional nor musical kind--too well. For her band Elastica’s engagement at the Roxy on Thursday, the gruffly sensual singer punched out terse spoken introductions to songs that left no room for ambiguity.

When the band launched into a number, it did so with swift dispatch, then got out just as efficiently. Taking punk’s “brevity is bliss” ethic to heart, the group distills its essence--the snarling rage, the airtight song structures--then sprinkles a residue of glitter and sugar on material that has the reassuring tang of familiarity about it.

Sometimes too familiar, in fact. The band was accused of nicking riffs from other U.K. acts for its 1995 debut album, but Elastica’s appropriation is just an explicit form of homage to the taut, sinewy noise dispatches that British bands such as Wire made their lifeblood during the late ‘70s.

At the Roxy, before a crowd that warmly welcomed the band after its three-year hiatus, Frischmann and Elastica offered up punky power bursts and squiggly new wave, never loosening the slack on a set that was wound as tight as a torsion spring.

A new-edition version of the Meat Puppets opened the show. With guitarist Curt Kirkwood leading three new members, it seemed at times like a weird, Vegas-ized version of a great band. But the group sounded strong and cohesive.