Miracle Legion Edgy and Whimsical at Bogart’s

On its current album “Me and Mr. Ray,” Miracle Legion, a group led by the duo of Mark J. Mulcahy and Ray Neal, soft-pedals sounds suited for introspective neo-folkies living on double espressos and tattered copies of Camus. So it was a surprise when the Connecticut-based band (now a quartet) exploded on stage at Bogart’s on Friday with a refreshing surge of thorny post-punkisms. Even if it’s not 100% focused yet, this is a group with wide-angle vision.

Looking like a cousin of Tiny Tim, singer Mulcahy occasionally overdid the “look ma, I’m eccentric” routine, but his raspy tone and gliding phrases recall the emotional purity of Van Morrison. Guitarist Neal, a bundle of raw intensity and Yankee ingenuity, transformed simple riffs into power cycles by dint of commitment.

Not all the songs worked--some are too arch, others too enigmatic--but Miracle Legion’s hard edginess and sweet poetic whimsy are a bright light in the increasingly dim field of independent, non-metallic, American bands.