Raveonettes fill the El Rey with fuzzy delirium

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As elegant as the El Rey Theatre may be, some bands are meant to tear through the venue with reckless abandon, and on Monday the Raveonettes roared as loud as they could once the curtains were drawn open.

The Danish duo, of course, has a sophistication with their noise. Touring in support of their sixth studio album “Observator,” Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo are pros at welding a hybrid of raucous garage rock, shoegaze and dream-pop – and their set, which offered a range of arching melodies, swelling harmonies, fervid guitar solos and penetrating rhythms, proved it.

And with such a robust catalog, the Raveonettes were considerate enough to give fans a taste of the old and new by jumping from album to album. “She Owns the Streets,” “Observator” and “Young and Cold,” the three strongest tracks from the new album were immediately played during the first half of their set, but songs like the sunny “Dead Sound” from 2007’s “Lust Lust Lust” and “Gone Forever” from 2009’s “In and Out of Control” also added a depth to their live repertoire.

Aside from a humble “Thank you,” Wagner and Foo didn’t say much between tunes of raging fuzz. But Foo did stop to say, “We’re being very Danish today but that’s OK. This is gonna be very old school now,” before going in to old tunes such as fan favorite “Love in a Trashcan” off of “Pretty in Black” and even older tunes (“Attack of the Ghost Riders,” “My Tornado”) off of their first release “Whip It On.”

The night seemed to get louder with each song, but fans were deliriously happy to be going deaf if it meant the Raveonettes would keep this powerful surge of shoegaze going. The lights also complemented the set’s transition into darker tunes toward the end of the night; by the time the duo ended their set with “Aly, Walk With Me,” the audience was under complete hypnosis.

The Raveonettes’ encore was even diverse enough to keep all show goers happy. As they gave in to “Lust,” “Sinking With the Sun” and “Cops On Our Tail,” the room swayed and rocked accordingly.

Parisian band Melody’s Echo Chamber, fronted by Melody Prochet, opened the night with a psychedelic mentality via sun-drenched dream-pop melodies.

Photo by Debi Del Grande