Rock is alive and kicking at FNX show

For doubters who cling to the fashionable but misguided notion that rock is dead -- or punk, or pop (the good old fashioned kind with melodies and electric guitars) -- the eclectic grab bag of artists in WFNX-FM's marathon "Alter-Nativity Show" on Tuesday night offered a convincing counterargument. As with films, restaurants, or car mechanics, when it comes to finding bands, you just have to know where to look to find the good ones.

Sweden is a well-established hotbed: home of the Hives, Sahara Hotnights, and now Mando Diao, whose Creation/Small Faces-stoked convulsions were on display Tuesday night. But Boston is as good a place to start as any. Two of Tuesday's seven acts that alternated sets in the cozy Paradise lounge and the larger main room were Boston-bred highlights.

Apollo Sunshine, a local trio that recently released a highly entertaining disc of crazy-quilt pop titled "Katonah," kicked off the show in the main room with a playfully warped, nostalgia-tweaked set of songs -- including "The Egg" and "I Was on the Moon" -- that sounded like cacophonous nursery rhymes waylaid by weirdo keyboard tones and the occasional guitar freakout. Quickly morphing time signatures were sweetened by angel-food cake harmonies and a fluffy, Shins-like hummability.

By contrast, Read Yellow's insurgent punk threatened to overwhelm the small lounge. The group largely succeeded.

Loveless, a muscular Boston four-piece fronted by Dave Wanamaker (Expanding Man), delivered a superbly streamlined set built on crunching, classic-style guitar rock full of heart, heat, and most important, hooks. The riff-charged swagger of "Gift to the World" (also the title of Loveless's full-length debut) and "Suicide Machines" offered proof that there's some life left in the old rock 'n' roll dog yet. And despite the fact that it was an '80's-style power ballad, "She Could Be Something Good" flashed sweetly back to the Guns N' Roses prom favorite "Patience" and said something about this band's ability to rise above an unforgivable song genre.

New York's Radio 4 has its own local connections: Noted Boston producer Tim O'Heir manned the boards for the group's 2000 debut, "The New Song and Dance." Radio 4's latest disc, "Gotham!," however, isn't bound by anything so simple as local geography or its New York-centric title. The group's musically omnivorous impulses and its disco-fied, dub-dosed brand of New Wave felt like a heady rush -- a melting pot of Blondie-meets-Black Grape bump-and-grind groove.

Augmented by a second guitarist and drummer, the Raveonettes, a Danish duo -- deadpanning singer-guitarist Sune Rose Wagner and Nico-esque ice queen bassist Sharin Foo -- showed just how much could be accomplished with two dramatically placed chords, or even one. "Holding me down to that sultry, sexy sound," a line from the group's song "Veronica Fever," captured what the Raveonettes do so well. Like predecessors the Jesus and Mary Chain, whom they have obviously listened to a great deal (along with Phil Spector's girl groups), the Raveonettes distill desire down to its essentials.

WFNX-FM Alter-Nativity Show

With: the Raveonettes, Radio 4, Mando Diao, and others.

At: the Paradise, Tuesday night.