Kevin Bronson on March 12th, 2010

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Black leather never goes out of fashion. And to a certain population – represented by the giddy crowd that packed the Echoplex on Thursday night – neither does the music of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

Revivalists when they first roared into our consciousness early last decade, Peter Hayes and Robert Levon Been have now become a couple of rock ’n’ roll’s sexiest journeymen, and that’s not a slam. Five albums in (discounting the throwaway instrumental disc they did in 2008), and now energized by new drummer Leah Shapiro, BRMC seems frozen in time, still parlaying a sense of cool and danger and mystery into a cacophonous alternate reality. Thursday could have been that night in 2001 at the Silverlake Lounge, when a new shoegazer band had arrived from San Francisco and was taking L.A. by storm, except for the light show and the new songs.

That new material – off “Beat the Devil’s Tattoo,” released this week – fit seamlessly in BRMC’s set during the 90-plus-minute excursion. Been complained that he turned up sick and without a voice in the morning, joking that his meds had put him in a good mood, and his vocals showed no ill effects. The new album’s title track and “Bad Blood” revealed BRMC at its mystical best, and the trio delighted the faithful by dipping into its catalog for a healthy dose of songs off 2007’s “Baby 81” and its first album, “B.R.M.C.”

“Whatever Happened to My Rock & Roll?” Black Rebel asked on that 2001 debut. Well, what? Has it been appropriated by Ivy Leaguers who lift world beats? Has it been stolen by trust-fund electro-poppers who master their laptops? Has it been meted to suburban-bred folkies who’ve never set foot on a country road? I submit that it’s no worse in the hands of the guys who still favor the leather jackets.

A sludgy mix took some of the bite out of the opening set by the Whigs, the Athens, Ga., trio whose third album “In the Dark,” could very well turn them into an arena act. At their sharpest, the Whigs shred like Dinosaur Jr. Jr. – their big hooks come at the expense of a little aural discomfort. On Thursday, as they ripped through the bulk of their new album (“Kill Me Carolyne” was the xenith), the rhythm section of drummer Julian Dorio and new bassist Tim Deaux was prominent, even as singer-guitarist Parker Gispert convulsed all over the stage. It was still powerful stuff, even if it didn’t reach the heights of last November’s show at the Troubadour.

||| Live: BRMC and the Whigs reprise their performances at the Echoplex tonight. BRMC then plays another sold-out show there on Sunday before visiting the House of Blues Anaheim on Tuesday. BRMC also plays a free in-store at 6 tonight at Amoeba. Noon update: BRMC has postponed its in-store this evening at Amoeba.