A few weeks ago in Maine, a disgruntled member of a church congregation is reported to have slipped arsenic into his fellow parishioners’ post-service coffee, causing one death and lots of bad vibes. When the 23 members of the Polyphonic Spree took the Paradise stage last Saturday, the possibility of a similar incident in some alternative universe occurred to me. What if instead of arsenic it had been a more, uh, user-friendly psychedelic chemical and the target had been the church choir? The result might have been the Polyphonic Spree.

This project is the brainchild of former Tripping Daisies frontman Tim DeLaughter. Following the release of an album’s worth of Polyphonic Spree’s sunny and uplifting choral pop songs (The Beginning Stages of . . . , on Good), all of which are wrapped in an orchestral majesty that veers between evangelical grandeur and Syd Barrett–style psychedelia, DeLaughter has hit the road with his white-robed choir. The group’s live show is a twisted pop spectacle, with DeLaughter using his magnetic on-stage presence to channel equal parts Joe Cocker and David Koresh.

For its part, the Paradise stage looked like a junior-high-school music room, jammed with instruments and stage risers, as the Spree trooped out following a Renaissancy keyboard introduction. They were quickly off and running, with DeLaughter’s ardor met in waves by the choir. The music eased from soaring spirituality to swirling pop as DeLaughter, whose vocal range recalls Flaming Lips’ singer Wayne Coyne, served up continual messages of encouragement. The musicians mostly avoided stepping on one another’s notes, though with so much going on, some muddy mixing was inevitable.

After 70 minutes and a collective theatric bow, the ensemble exited, only to return moments later for an encore. Charging into the album’s opening track, they were back at peak energy level before throwing a curve with a cover of David Bowie’s "Five Days." The horn and string sections climbed to a stirring climax as DeLaughter’s voice grew tortured. And as the Polyphonic Spree all sat, DeLaughter introduced a final piece designed, as he put it, to "give you all nice dreams" before a cascading harp solo concluded the evening.