Kevin Bronson on July 26th, 2013

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The crowd was decidedly old-school on Wednesday night at the Satellite, peppered with once-a-monthers who used to be thrice-a-weekers back in the days three or four or five years ago when Silver Lakers were united in the opinion the Happy Hollows could be the next big thing. They still could, but to their credit the Hollows showed on Wednesday that they are looking forward, not back.

• ||| Photos by Carl Pocket

The occasion was the band’s release party for “Amethyst,” the slow-to-materialize sophomore album on which the trio moves beyond the guitar-based art-punk on their 2009 debut “Spells.” The new album incorporates agitated synths to go along with agitated guitars, but it still stars the effervescent singer-guitarist Sarah Negahdari, the quantum physics-lovin’, tarot card-readin’, metaphysics-obsessed sprite who mutates from shredder to cheerleader in the blink of an eye.

With Negahdari typically beaming – and occasionally displaying the finger-tapping fret skills that are part of the marvel – the Hollows ripped through a main set dominated by material from the Lewis Pesacov-produced “Amethyst,” highlighted by “Endless,” “Galaxies” and the title track. Lyrically, some of those songs might inspire an existential crisis if not for Negahdari’s showmanship. Her full-throttle vocals are less yelpy than on “Spells” and seem to emanate from a deeper place; sometimes you think she’s only a nasty sneer away from being world famous. Yeah Yeah Yeahs come to mind, especially given Wednesday night’s rhythm section of bassist Charlie Mahoney and the band’s original drummer, Chris Hernandez, both of whom prove worthy of their D.C. punk roots.

Live, this is no synth-pop band.

The Hollows’ dalliance in electro beats was born out of necessity anyway; Negahdari and Mahoney only began experimenting with loops because, after the first album, Hernandez had to relocate to Florida for family reasons. The follow-up album was a bit slow to arrive because Negahdari signed on to fill in for new mom Nikki Monninger as Silversun Pickups bassist (and three of the four Pickups were out Wednesday to support).

The only smidgen of the Happy Hollows’ past came during the encore, when they played “Faces.” By then, the songs from “Amethyst” had proven themselves to be every bit as exhilarating as “Spells,” only without the Pixies comparisons.

Drummer Jordan Richardson’s duo Son of Stan kicked off the night in raucous fashion before the decibel rose substantially for noise pop/shoegazing trio Nightmare Air, who blew hair back with songs from their full-length “High in the Laser.”