From the first, striding chords and skittering drums on album opener, "It Was Disco and It's Over," the West succeed in evoking a dozen beloved influences - from newly deified type like LCD Soundsystem to time-tested gods like New Order. Clearly, the members of the West have an ear for not just imitation, but for constructing songs that sound like they'd fit in on a compilation of early '80s Manchester rebels and post-punk rave-ups. The dark romanticism of that era is emblazoned all over their full-length, In Low Light. (Track 2 is "You're In Control," a winking almost-answer song to Joy Division's "She's Lost Control.") But all of these evocative sounds and words would all be for naught if the West didn't bring it with compelling grooves and sharp-as-a-tack songwriting, which they luckily do quite handily.

THE WEST, w/guests, 9 p.m., cover, The New Frontier Lounge, 301 E. 25th St., Tacoma, 253.572.4020