Rogue Wave is what you might call the paradigmatic 2007 indie band: their hooks are pretty, their lyrics are incomprehensible, and their singles appear regularly on both elitist music blogs and network television soundtracks. Accordingly, the question facing Rogue Wave is the one facing all the other Pitchfork wunderkind of similar vintage: Are they a small band that, for the moment, is big, or a big band that, for the moment, is small?

Last night’s concert at the Black Cat didn’t provide a conclusive answer. While there is absolutely no doubt that the band can both write and rock, their sprawling sound can be inaccessible to a live audience that is learning, and deciding whether to love, the band. Because little of today’s slacker rock is danceable (except, of course for the “dance-rock” subgenre), a band like Rogue Wave must either pound out the testosterone rock or wholeheartedly embrace its lyrical sensibilities to connect with a live audience. Currently, the band is caught somewhere between these two poles. Neither riffs nor rhymes are central to the Rogue Wave mission.