The world according to Vanderslice

Indie-pop practitioners are more concerned with crafting music they enjoy than something guaranteed to sell. This has led to an abundance of overly precious and obscure work, but seasoned acts John Vanderslice and the Wrens proved quirkily engaging in their separate Knitting Factory sets Wednesday.

Drawing a large crowd despite heavy rain, Vanderslice and his band offered almost an hour’s worth of off-kilter tunes with a persistent, morbid charm. The former leader of experimental pop band MK Ultra, Vanderslice got attention with his solo debut, 2000’s “Mass Suicide Occult Figurines,” after an elaborate hoax in which he claimed that he was being legally harassed over the track “Bill Gates Must Die” (the lyrics of which didn’t actually demand the software mogul’s demise).

But Vanderslice, though displaying a dry, gruesome wit, was no joke Wednesday. Songs from his fourth album, “Cellar Door,” and other collections were rhythmically propulsive and melodically complex, sometimes visceral, with new-wave undercurrents of keyboards and samples, sometimes airy and lush.

His deadpan vocals limned numerous unexpected vignettes, from a jilted swain tossing his lover’s clothes off a hotel-room balcony, to a father just learning of his son’s death.

The Wrens showed a similar sonic range but amplified the extremes, ranging from Pixies-esque rambunctious raging to delicate dream-pop musing. The Jersey quartet’s polish and high energy reflected its 14-year history, during which it has released only three albums due to various business complications. Selections from 2003’s “The Meadowlands” and others were alternately kinetic and subtle, but ultimately Vanderslice was more memorable.