Full house sees the Duke Spirit deal

Liela Moss can talk the talk. Now her band, the Duke Spirit, has "The Step and the Walk," and the sky might be the limit.

That single, off the British quintet's new album "Neptune," capped a set that made you forget its occasional soft spots on Wednesday night at the Echo, which was more crowded than NME's thesaurus of platitudes. The shoulder-to-shoulder masses witnessed a band that's about one tick short of a 12 o'clock high, as Moss and bandmates dealt lean, foreboding garage rock that harks back to the '80s and '90s Britpop heydays.

It all hinges on Moss, the singer who's as much icy hot as hot-and-bothered. Her pipes have drawn comparison to Patti Smith and Nico and PJ Harvey; maybe there's some more-gutteral Chrissie Hynde in there too, in the phrasing; and somebody in the throng even suggested Christina Amphlett of Divinyls, which ... might not be too far off. Whatever. Moss delivers, even if you feel at times she's trapped between offering herself directly to the crowd and maintaining her veneer of detached cool.

There's a weather-beaten intelligence in Duke Spirit songs such as "Send a Little Love Token," "Into the Fold" and "Cuts Across the Land" (the latter from their 2006 debut) that lesser bands might suffocate in histrionics. On Wednesday, nobody was gasping for air, except maybe the bartenders.

||| Live: The Duke Spirit return to L.A. for a May 13 show at the Troubadour.

||| Stream: "Send a Little Love Token" [login required].

Photo by Kevin Bronson / LAT