Also this issue: Professional Bull Riders Built Ford Tough Series Flower Show -Juliet Fletcher Gilbert Gottfried -Frank Halperin

February 27-March 5, 2003

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Ikara Colt

If it seems a bit contrived that this Whitechapel, U.K., quartet took its name from a racehorse, just get an earful of Chat and Business (Epitaph). Can you think of a better handle for a band that cranks out songs this feisty at such a galloping pace? Staccato riffs are juxtaposed against wandering basslines and snappy sing-shouting throughout Ikara Colt's debut full-length, conjuring EVOL-era Sonic Youth on the reckless "Pop Group" and a less bizarre Butthole Surfers on the rapped urban nightmare of "City of Glass." Singer/guitarist Claire Ingram stages a cluster of call-and-response sessions with frontman Paul Resende, and the guy-girl dynamic sounds fresh in an art-damaged post-punk context (even though it makes the listener wish Ingram got more time on the mic). True, in the end it's revival, and the revival thing is getting done to death. But as long as Ikara is this loud, you won't be able to ignore them.

Sat., March 1, 9 p.m., $10, all ages, with Sahara Hotnights and Washdown, The North Star, 27th and Poplar sts., 215-684-0808.

—John Vettese