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	LOST CITY ANGELS Tricked out treats

Lost City Angels were brought to the stage last Saturday by Darkbuster frontman Lenny Lashley, who was dressed as a giant beer keg — an outfit so perfect for this proud rock-and-roll tippler that it was poetry. So was the Angels’ homecoming performance after a month touring a bill that included Lashley’s band. Sure, it was their annual Halloween show, so they played to an audience upstairs at the Middle East that included more traditional-looking angels, devils, a Hassidic rabbi, ghouls, vampires, and a "Team Satan" cheerleader — and singer Ron Ragona dressed as the living incarnation of the Misfits’ bony mascot. But the music was pure punk soul, with total investment in every note. And they played a lot of them. Especially guitarist Nick Bacon, whose spicy vocabulary of classic-rock licks kept poking through the loud ’n’ fast veneer.

On the surface, Lost City Angels’ stage delivery — a gut punch of raging adrenaline — seems like the whirlwind din of a talented punk band who’ve spent much of the year on the road playing one-nighters. And that’s enough. But when the lyrics break through — and when you’re listening to Broken World (Stay Gold/Universal), the major-label-distributed debut they’ve been touring behind — they reveal a cauldron of passions. The songs echo religious betrayal and spiritual searching, and a seething sense of fairness enraged by the George W. regime’s bloodsucking corporate oligarchy. Blend those notions with a rhythm section as powerful as drummer Adam Shaw and bassist Duggan, who drove Saturday’s set with absolute ferocity, and add the twin-guitar caterwaul of Bacon and Drew Suxx and you’ve got a raw, empowering dynamism that’s genuinely uplifting.