A line stretched to the corner outside Washington’s 9:30 Club last Thursday as Super Furry Animals began their hour-long opening set for Grandaddy. The lights dimmed and an absurd, sonic assault began against a video-projected background of colors, psychedelic shapes and old newsreel footage. At one point, a looping video clip of Vladimir Lenin was projected onto the screen behind the band and began to move in time to the music. The effect was at once ominous and exhilarating, but it was all part of the act.

At times, their music sounded too similar to the soaring, electronic-tinged rock of Mercury Rev or The Flaming Lips. But for the most part, the British band Super Furry Animals displayed a dark and bizarre edge that made it hard to imagine any pre-recorded album giving the band any justice. This is precisely the way good rock should be.

Appropriately, the band donned furry animal suits and ended their set with ear-splitting noises and barely comprehensible words. Lead singer Gruff Rhys grumbled and growled into a distorted microphone before stomping off stage.

The video backdrop remained intact as Grandaddy humbly took the stage with an array of keyboards, samplers, guitars and drums.

The California indie band’s performance coincided with the release of their new album, Sumday (V2 Records), a bright pop record filled with fuzzy guitars, bleeps, bloops and electronic samples in all the right places.

Grandaddy’s live show was a pleasing, note-for-note replica of songs off their albums. The volume lowered a bit from the deafening lunacy of Super Furry Animals, which isn’t to say Grandaddy didn’t know how to rock. They just knew how to do other things, too. Images on the screen turned to full-length music video projections complementing the band’s live performance. One of the videos featured children masquerading as the various members of the band, complete with backstage beer-guzzling and full facial hair.

Grandaddy’s music is about appreciating the natural world, and most of the other images were videos of people walking through fields, peppered with the occasional abstract shapes floating around the screen. However, the video display never distracted fans from the music, a feat not often accomplished by bands trying to employ multimedia techniques during live shows.

Roughly 90 minutes, Grandaddy’s set consisted primarily of songs off Sumday and their previous moodier album, The Sophtware Slump. The band was all about the music, leaving little room for onstage antics. Lead singer/songwriter Jason Lytle remained half-hidden behind a stack of electronic equipment throughout the entire set.

It was impressive to see live reproductions of some rather complex noises heard on the albums. Keyboardist Tim Dryden had so many panels that he looked as though he was controlling a nuclear power plant. One might expect a band with so much gear to sound like Radiohead, but for Grandaddy, all the fancy equipment is the icing on the rock ‘n’ roll cake.

Grandaddy and Super Furry Animals proved to be an odd couple that worked like a charm together, and everyone at the 9:30 Club got their money’s worth last Thursday.