Singular Vision of Siouxsie & the Banshees at Universal

For more than a decade, England’s Siouxsie & the Banshees have portrayed a dark, phantasmagorical world filled with a dreamy sensuality and a sense of dark foreboding. Friday night at the Universal Amphitheatre, the group brought an elaborate stage show that resembled a cross between a German Expressionist, “Blue Angel”-type cabaret and a post-atomic shindig, marking the first time the quintet has delivered a theatrical performance befitting it’s idiosyncratic vision.

The years have taken a toll on Siouxsie Sioux’s vocal chords--once a powerful siren wail, her vocals are now cracked, flawed, whispered, sometimes off pitch. No matter: This woman is still one of the most charismatic figures in music. Resembling silent movie flapper Louise Brooks, Sioux vamped her way across the stage as the band ran through most of the material off it’s latest album, “Peepshow.”

On record, many Banshees’ songs are often half-formed ideas meandering their way toward significance. But Friday even the most tenuous of Banshee concepts gained a special resonance and dimension. And when the group hit one of its peak songs, like “Christine,” “Spellbound,” or “Cities in Dust,” it was easy to see how the Banshees, the only survivors of the 1976 British punk explosion, remain as vital and intriguing today as when the group started.