When TV on the Radio singer Tunde Adebimpe performs, he uses his left arm, by turns, with the studied strength of a preacher dispensing healing and the arm-waving frenzy of a lost soul seeking salvation. It's the most visible demonstration of the push-pull of the Brooklyn band's musical styles and the creative tension that comes with it. The one constant in the band's music, especially in its new album "The Return to Cookie Mountain" (Interscope), is the lure of familiar styles - from '50s doo-wop to '70s soul to '90s hip-hop - which are followed by the yank in an unexpected direction.
It showed up time and time again in the band's 90-minute set Tuesday night at Irving Plaza, from the opener "Dirtywhirl" - with its chugging guitars, dub-style keyboards and whistling - to the final encore, the gorgeous "Ambulance." (The latter could have come from The Platters - if the "Twilight Time" singers would deliver lines like "I will be your ambulance, if you will be my accident.") TV on the Radio can be thrilling, as it was on "Province," in which singer/guitarist Kyp Malone lightened Adebimpe's thunderous delivery with falsetto harmonies and guitarist David Sitek built majestic soundscapes.
And they can have fun - as they did on their current, bouncy single "Wolf Like Me" (yes, the one from last week's "Grey's Anatomy"), which Adebimpe introduced by joking, "This song was penned by the heiress Paris Hilton specifically for the band." TV on the Radio is at its best, though, when it strives to be both. On the stunning "Let the Devil In," the band, augmented by a horn section and openers Grizzly Bear, bounded around the stage like kids in their first music class.
They played tambourines and beer bottles with mallets. Adebimpe led the crowd in a sing-along of the chorus by yelling through a megaphone. Sitek let the windchimes hanging from the neck of his guitar drag across Jaleel Bunton's drum set.
There was a conga line of sorts and loads of jumping for joy, both onstage and in the audience. It's that joy that sets TV on the Radio apart from the ever-growing ranks of the indie-rock experimentalists - something it shares with openers Grizzly Bear, whose 30-minute set featured sunny, Beach Boys-inspired harmonies paired with stark, guitar soundscapes from its "Yellow House" (Warp) album. There's a warmth to TV on the Radio's live show that doesn't always come through on its recorded work.
It seems like yet another dichotomy, where the group strives for precision in the studio and showmanship on the stage. During "The Wrong Way," which becomes an old-school soul rave-up in concert, the band almost sounded like a different one than the one that made the recorded version. As bold and inventive as "The Return to Cookie Mountain" is, it still doesn't match the innovation TV on the Radio conjures onstage in its quest for a good time.
Luckily, it doesn't have to be one or the other. TV ON THE RADIO. Taking "Cookie Mountain" to even higher musical heights.
With Grizzly Bear. At Irving Plaza Tuesday and Wednesday. Seen Tuesday.
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