At the Wheel Again: Swervedriver

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SWERVEDRIVER GUITARIST JIMMY HARTRIDGE just exited an In-N-Out Burger — and he can't find his way back to the tour bus. But give the guy a break: The U.K. group is on its first road trek after a nine-year hiatus, and — unlike singer-guitarist Adam Franklin, who has performed as Toshack Highway since Swervedriver put on the brakes — Hartridge dropped out of music-making.

The band took a break because its career was stalled by record label problems, but now that Swervedriver's back, Hartridge says, "This tour is the best one we've ever done. It's been the most enjoyable ... the least troubled tour. ... The gigs are better, we're tighter."

The group first gained notice in the early '90s when it was lumped into Britain's burgeoning shoegaze scene, but Swervedriver's music isn't a guitar-pedal wash of hazy sound: Its epic songs are filled with Stooges-like punk riffs and Jah Wobble-esque punky-reggae bass lines.

On Swervedriver's four albums — all out of print — there's a precision to the melodic, layered arrangements that don't undercut the songs' explosive energy, but, Franklin says, "As a live thing, it's always meant to be sort of chaotic. If a pedal starts screwing up, or somebody plays something a bit wrong, you can make it even more out there and crazy — and it still makes sense."

So does going out on the road again for a band that has no new music to promote and no back catalog to sell.

"The crowds have been very loud and vociferous," Franklin says. "I guess if you take something away from somebody long enough, they realize they want it back."

» 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW; with Longwave, Sun., 7:30 p.m., $20; 202-265-0930, 930.com. (U St.-Cardozo)

Photo courtesy Space Baby PR