In the Furries’ Twisted World

Welsh quintet Super Furry Animals took listeners on a journey to the center of its twisted little mind on Tuesday during an El Rey Theatre concert that blended space-rock artiness with a wry rebelliousness against government, religion and the status quo in general.

Drawing from its current collection, “Rings Around the World,” and other records from its nine-year career, the group offered melodic, slightly dissonant, highly impudent anthems and ballads that displayed a deft grasp of rock’s past and present. By turns gutturally distorted, vividly erotic and delicately unearthly, the 90-minute set variously evoked such similarly backward/forward-looking American acts as B.R.M.C., the Dandy Warhols and Beachwood Sparks.

Yet the Furries’ sonic vocabulary was even broader, as the players crafted their modern sound by fusing classic psychedelic flavors of the Beach Boys, the Beatles, David Bowie and T. Rex (to name a few) with Stooges-esque punk bits and techno elements, mostly in the form of deep bass notes that shook the very hairs on one’s head.

Almost every number had an accompanying film that provided another dimension as well as something engaging to watch during those moments when the music got bogged down in all the sprawling subtleties.

Er, not that there was anything subtle about the raging fist-waver that cribbed from Steely Dan’s “Showbiz Kids” to stick it to the Man but good. But the droll, acoustic-flavored “Run! Christian, Run!” played like a majestic satanic twist on the twangy, Byrds-associated “The Christian Life.” Although not always delivering the proverbial revolution you can dance to, Super Furry Animals came plenty close enough for these under-protested times.