Satomi Matsuzaki has been known to perform zipped up in a sleeping bag, or, in the band’s early years, in an orange bear costume. So it’s telling that the Deerhoof frontwoman took the stage last night in an all-black shirt, jeans, and boots ensemble. Could this be a confirmation of the reviewers’ buzz that the madcap noise-rock trio’s latest album, Friend Opportunity, was less oblique, more accessible, than past releases?

It’s true that in recent years, Matsuzaki has started doing less screaming and more singing, and that the Bay-area group has veered toward more conventional song structures. But saying that Deerhoof has become “more conventional” is like saying that an Orca whale lost 40 pounds on TrimSpa. Deerhoof has ingenious absurdity to spare.

Toward the beginning of the show, we were introduced to Peter Venuto, a Deerhoof superfan from Toronto whose “electric rainbow machine” — a three-pronged pinwheel that created a mesmerizing light display on the stage — was making its “maiden voyage” at the Black Cat. It broke down midway through the band’s set, around the same time that one of guitarist John Dieterich’s guitar strings snapped, prompting Matsuzaki to note after the show, “It seems like something always goes wrong,” prompting us to want to scoop her up and cuddle her and tell her that the chaos is part of what makes Deerhoof so great. How could she be worried about a broken guitar string when the sold-out show had been a smashing success?