White Rabbits @ Turner Hall Ballroom

When Spoon’s Britt Daniel produced the White Rabbits’ latest album, It’s Frightening, he left his markeverywhere, weaving a pastiche of echoing pianos, disembodied guitar licks andsnippets of studio chatter that he could have easily slapped his own name onand released as a Spoon album. Given how similar White Rabbits singer StephenPatterson’s falsetto is to Daniel’s, nobody would ever know; Daniel could justoverdub a couple of his signature “al’ights!,” claim he was aiming for amoodier, Radiohead-esque sound and have the checks mailed straight to his homein Austin.

So what, exactly, separates White Rabbits from Spoon? Justan auxiliary percussionist, mostly, but what a difference that second drummermakes, especially in concert. Where Spoon’s fractured songs threaten to unravelliveand often doWhite Rabbits’ are bound by the tribal thunder of theirunyielding second drummer, Jamie Levinson, a one-man Stomp troupe who lends muscle and menace to the group’s creakydirges and spectacle to their live shows.

White Rabbits Tuesday night show at the Turner HallBallroom, then, was short, fierce and purposeful, with a 60-minute set buildingto the militaristic rumble of “Percussion Gun,” the band’s breakthrough singleand the carrot that lured much of the audience. Tracks from the band’s debut, Fort Nightly, shined just as brightly asthe new material, especially the jaunty “The Plot” and fire-and-brimstonecalypso update “Kid on My Shoulders.” It’sFrightening casts White Rabbits as Spoon’s lesser copy, but in concert theband cuts themselves from Spoon’s apron strings and casts their own longshadow.