Instrumental Trio Messthetics At Space Ballroom

The Messthetics features drummer Brendan Canty and bassist Joe Lally, the rhythm section from the beloved band Fugazi. The pair haven’t worked together since 2003, when Fugazi hit the pause button. The Messthetics are a trio, rounded out by guitarist Anthony Pirog, who adds a sort of Frippertronic art-rock shredding to the affair.

Ultimately this is more post-punk than post-rock, with plenty of jabs, shards, riffs, angles and displays of rhythmic agility, but on the band’s just-released record there are also moments of drifting elemental calm, like on “The Inner Ocean” and “The Radiation Fog.” Most of these instrumental songs are built on the kind of lumbering and menacing grooves that Canty and Lally used to drive Fugazi’s music. Pirog flies in over the top with a range of ringing tones, sharp metallic slashes or with shivering effects. It’s odd to suggest, but Messthetics has the potential — at different moments — to please fans of both Tortoise and Joe Satriani.

Messthetics play the Space Ballroom, 295 Treadwell St., Hamden, on Thursday, April 19, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $12 to $15. 203-288-6400, spaceballroom.com