The Veils

Tue., June 12, 8 p.m., with Gianmarco Cilli, The Khyber, 56 S. Second St.

by Ashlea Halpern

rock/pop

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Sensitive types, take cover — Finn Andrews is nothing but a heartache. The son of XTC keyboardist Barry Andrews and a world leader in fey haberdashery, the 24-year-old grand dame of wallow rock is mucking his reluctant way to America. He's got a new band, a new record and a battery of sad-goth stories about crumbling moons and tear-filled gardens. Not a whit of it uplifting, really.

As primadonnas are wont to do, Andrews chucked the original Veils lineup for the making of Nux Vomica (World's Fair), a seethingly lovestruck follow-up to 2004's quiet storm The Runaway Found. Amid clobbering pianos and strings as sweet as liquid Clementines, Andrews' voice quavers like Kevorkian making an impassioned plea of innocence. When he doesn't get his way, which is often, his voice scales the Mount Everest of octaves, plateauing somewhere between the teeth-yanking yowl of Axl Rose and the incalculable agony of an old Italian widow.

Once Andrews has you in his pretty little grip, you stop caring about his alt-superstar pedigree. You don't care that he's wispier than a grass blade and wearing more eyeliner than your girlfriend. You don't care that he's only happy when it rains. You care that he gets better, that he rights these wrongs, that he pulls the car around and climbs that goddamn stoop and bangs on her door and begs for forgiveness, that — for fuck's sake — he doesn't abandon us the way he abandoned everything else in his life. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Tue., June 12, 8 p.m., $8, with Gianmarco Cilli, The Khyber, 56 S. Second St., 215-238-5888,