Bigger Than the Sound: Yeah Yeah Yeahs @ 9:30

Or rather, Karen does. The others, Tim Burton lookalikes all, just stay out of her way. From the insistent bounce of the opening “Dull Life” to the overdriven “Y Control” that closed the set proper, O(rzolek) began every tune with a scarf wrapped around her head, only to rip it away seconds later. Her egg-shaped cheekbones, demonic grin, and pageboy ‘do make her look a bit like a Kabuki mask doing aerobics. She shrieks like Brian Johnson on grinders like “Rockers to Swallow,” but on bent funk numbers like “Phenomena” and especially those ballads, she reveals herself as her generation’s Chrissie Hynde, keeper of a luminous voice that can make a ballad soar with lithe abandon. Tough, tender, batshit crazy — she can do it all.

You mightn’t think it with a band like this, but it seems they do play a different set each night. Performing beneath an inflatable white orb that pivoted ‘round to reveal itself as painted to resemble a human eye, guitarist-plus Nick Zinner bridged each tween-song interlude with rippling currents of noise, giving the moment as visceral punch each time the sonic waves parted to commence a new song. The set was a career-spanner, with 2003’s Fever to Tell and ‘06’s Show Your Bones nearly as well represented as Blitz.

“Maps” arrived as the first encore, in a less committed performance than the frenetic “Date with the Night” that closed the show. But the highlight might have been “Cheated Hearts,” the ballad that finds O declaring, “I think I’m bigger than the sound.”

She’s written original songs for Spike Jonze’s upcoming film version of Where the Wild Things Are, (single here; the album is out tomorrow) and has played infrequent solo shows under the name Native Korean Rock, but let’s hope she doesn’t really believe she’s bigger. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are much more than the sum of its parts. You can tell, because as soon as she finishes singing the line, the song swells up to drag her back under.