When TV on the Radio singer Tunde Adebimpe performs, his left arm alternates between the studied strength of a preacher dispensing healing and the arm-waving frenzy of a lost soul seeking salvation – the most visible demonstration of the Brooklyn band’s push-pull of musical styles and the creative tension that causes.
The one constant in the band’s music, especially in its new album “The Return to Cookie Mountain” (Interscope), is the lure of a familiar style – from ‘50s doo-wop to ‘70s soul to ‘90s hip-hop – 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,” which 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.”
SETLIST: Dirtywhirl / Dreams / Province / The Wrong Way / Young Liars / Wolf Like Me / I Was a Lover / Hours / Wash the Day / Satellite // ENCORES: Poppy / Staring at the Sun / Let the Devil In /Ambulance
TV on the Radio can be thrilling, as they were on “Province,” as singer/guitarist Kyp Malone lightens Adebimpe’s thunderous delivery with falsetto harmonies and guitarist David Sitek builds 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 they strive 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 they strive for precision in the studio and showmanship on the stage. During “The Wrong Way,” which becomes an old-school soul rave-up in concert, it almost sounds like a different band from 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 of the other.