Often, Handsome Furs' songs thrive on tension, but in concert the prevailing mode was ease. "I almost barfed" backstage, Boeckner joked at one point. "I still barfed," Perry quipped back, but it was hard to believe them: They were having too much fun.

Bantering, Boeckner employed a pithiness appropriate to his songs' concision: He introduced one as "another song about the cops"; another was inspired by "an Errol Morris film called Transformers 2" ; he described the album highlight "Evangeline" as "a song about fucking" (Big Black surely would have been proud).

And the set corrected the flaws in Handsome Furs' ebullient, if meandering, new album, Face Control, lending the anthems—"I'm Confused," the infectious "Radio Kaliningrad"—a high emotional pitch while mostly eschewing the record's more tangential moments (the instrumental numbers are parenthetically titled and parenthetical in deed). Choruses and codas soared but never overstretched; no song's ideas felt exploited. If Boeckner and Perry wink at a certain epically scaled '70s rock—think Darkness On The Edge Of Town—they also value economy.

Meanwhile, their presence was electric. He, sinewy and punkish, jolted convulsively as he strummed and sang. She—with her golden bob, '80s Madonna-style cross earrings, and polka dot leggings—was a miracle of movement, thrusting push-up-style at her keyboard and, once or twice, throwing a leg above her head. Boeckner's guitar was crunchy and insistent, echoing the polished post-punk of The Teardrop Explodes, and his growling vocals suggested Ian Curtis by way of Neil Diamond (unfailing alchemy in this critic's book). Perry, for her part, tickled each song with luminous synth gurgles and karate-chop beats.

The opener, the Harrisonburg and Staunton, Va.-based Cinnamon Band, shared some of Handsome Furs' taste for the epic-in-miniature, but otherwise seemed an odd fit for the headliner's natural constituency. This duo favored one shade of the '90s alt-rock paradigm, the stuff made by kids who listened to The Replacements and Uncle Tupelo and grew up to form, say, The Gin Blossoms. If Handsome Furs and Cinnamon Band share a particular debt to Springsteen, then the former has directly tapped the source while the latter merely skims off of the diminishing returns of its influence.

The audience—and I—got a much bigger kick out of Dri, the main project of Adrianne Verhoeven, formerly of The Anniversary. In recent years, this big-voiced blond has traded idiosyncratic emo for blue-eyed reggae and soul, an aesthetic that caught the audience off guard last night but quickly won it over. During the slower, more searching moments, the five-piece suggested Beach House for the Bonnaroo set, with autumnal organ and Verhoeven's honeyed vocals set to her freewheeling, groove-oriented backing band. The summery reggae songs, meanwhile, weighed jagged, Clash-like stomps against sunny, watery guitar licks.

Near the end of Handsome Furs' main set, both openers returned, with each of their members carrying a rose for Perry from Boeckner. She blushed and smiled before throwing the flowers into the audience like a wedding bouquet (whoever caught it would get "leprosy in the next year," Boeckner said with a grin), and the two quickly made out before closing with "Radio Kaliningrad." "I live the most romantic life in the world," Perry said demurely, having returned for an encore. "Thanks so much for being part of it."

Photo by Benjamin Freed

• The Dance Party, Ra Ra Rasputin, Tigercity, Casper Bangs. 9:30 club. $15. All ages.
• Deja Blue, Clarence “Bluesman” Turner. Bangkok Blues. Call for price.
• Handsome Furs, Dri, The Cinnamon Band. Black Cat. $12. All ages.
• Lynne Fiddmont. Blues Alley. $25.
• Atheist, The Faceless, Psyopus, The Agonist, Gnostic, Condemn the Infected, A Bloodbath in Boston. Jaxx. $20/$23.
• Alex Brown Quartet (Fri. & Sat. show). Twins Jazz. $15.
• Sunsets with a Soundtrack: The U.S. Army Concert Band. West Steps U.S. Capitol. Free.
• Video Games Live! Filene Center at Wolf Trap. $20–$48.
• Samantha Crain & the Midnight Shivers. Kennedy Center Millennium Stage. Free.
• Chopteeth, DJ Thick. Rock and Roll Hotel. $15. All ages.
• Chance Gardner, Molehill, Gist. The Red & The Black. $8. +21.

Saturday

• Mike Terpak Blues Explosion, Groove Quest. Bangkok Blues. Call for price.
• Trophy Wife, The Caution Curves. Black Cat Backstage. $8. All ages.
• Old Time Banjo Festival w/ Mike Seeger, Bruce Molsky, Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer, Clarke Buehling, The Old 78’s, and Adam Hurt. Birchmere. $29.50.
• Jimmy Bruno. Blues Alley. $25.
• Bugs Bunny on Broadway w/ the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Merriweather Post Pavilion. $12.50–$45.
• Hamlisch Conducts Hamlisch. Filene Center at Wolf Trap. $20–$48.
• Honor By August, Trustfall, Red Wanting Blue, Colourside. 9:30 club. $15. All ages.
• Washington National Opera Institute for Young Singers. Kennedy Center Millennium Stage. Free.
• Chali 2na (of Jurassic 5), Whosane feat. Pangea, Educated Consumers. Rock and Roll Hotel. $15. All ages.
• Feedback Dance Party w/ DJ Stereofaith, The Hardy Boys, DJs Dave Nada, Johnny Blaze, Trevor Martin, Andrew Jaye. DC9. $8. +21.
• Inkwell Strings, Dennis Manuel (Army of Me) performs Elvis Costello's The Juliet Letters. IOTA Club & Cafe. $12. +21.
• The Circus w/ Tyrone Norris, Bomani Armah. Expo. $8. +21.

Sunday

• Barbershop Jam, Blues Jam with the Idle Americans. Bangkok Blues. Call for price.
• National Trustees’ NSO Summer Music Institute Orchestra Concerts (July 12–26). Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Free.
• Rock the Bells w/ Nas, Damian Marley, The Roots, Common, Busta Rhymes, Big Boi, Reflection Eternal (Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek), Tech N9ne, RZA, Raekwon, K-Naan, Sage Francis. Merriweather Post Pavilion. $51-$101.
• Reggae 2009! w/ Beres Hammond, Culture featuring Kenyatta Hill & Lenya Wilks, w/ Harmony House Singers & Musicians. Filene Center at Wolf Trap. $25–$40.
• 5th Annual D.C. Latin Rock Fest w/ Locos Por Juana, Nayas, Oda's, March Of Us, Pistolera, Reynolds, Ocho de Bastos, Los NeuroNautas, Machetres. 9:30 club. $20. All ages.
• The Nine @ DC9 w/ Justin Trawick, Molly Hagen, Jason Ager, Ted Garber, Laura Tsaggaris, Jason Masi, Ken Wenzel, Victoria Vox, Matthew Bryce. DC9. $8. +21.
• Kung Fury, Super Potent Death Baby, King Giant. The Red & The Black. $6. +21.
• Questlove, DJ Dummy. Liv. $15.

Handsome Furs photo via MySpace.