RECOMMENDED Brooklyn’s Pela can pull off a quasi-emo hook better than other indie-rock peers like Snow Patrol or Bloc Party, and last year’s “Anytown Graffiti,” the band’s debut full-length, was a swell surprise. There’s nothing terribly new here—themes of love lost, addiction, bittersweet hopefulness in the end—and the group tends to pen songs that all sound exactly like one another, but the pleasant delivery, led by leader Billy McCarthy’s expressive, melodramatic voice, stays consistently infectious. Songs like “Lost to the Lonesome,” “The Trouble with River Cities” and “Cavalry” could all be stand-alone singles, and the vicious and big “Tenement Teeth,” with McCarthy’s insistent “It’s only love” choral repetition, is memorable. The best, though, is the gentle “Your Desert’s Not a Desert at All,” a moving piece that shows the band keeping it simple amongst all this post-punk madness. (Tom Lynch) Friday, February 29 at Schubas
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