A guitar crush from rockers with 'Lust Lust Lust' in their hearts

The Raveonettes, a.k.a. Sune Rose Wagner (left) and Sharin Foo, are touring to promote their third album, "Lust Lust Lust."

Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo are the Raveonettes, an ambitious Danish indie-rock duo that has never broken in this country like it should have. They've got the goods, for sure: talent, vision, and a finely tuned cinematic style. These two dwell in the gutters of guitar rock wearing caked eyeliner (mostly him) and looking like an escapee from a Nico song (mostly her).

He's the mastermind. She's a heartbreaker. Decked out in a sequined black-and-white dress only Blanche from "Golden Girls" could rock, Foo immediately sent hearts aflutter at the Paradise Rock Club Monday night.

"I love you, Sharin!" called out the first male admirer.

Followed by another: "I love you more!"

Only to be topped by yet another gentleman caller: "I love you the most!"

She might have loved them back, but who knows what that half-smile and stone-cold silence meant? Like Meg White, Foo has it mastered: Say very little and play your instrument well enough and you're forever cool.

Besides, the Raveonettes got right down to business at the Paradise. They shared the stage with Leah Shapiro, a no-nonsense drummer who stood the entire night and banged out thunderous rhythms drenched in reverb. ("We have a full band this time," Foo said with zero sarcasm.)

The Raveonettes are touring behind "Lust Lust Lust," their third and most searing album yet, one that begs to be heard loud and live, with Wagner and Foo's twin-guitar assault resonating in your chest.

Even though they stood 10 feet apart and their eyes seldom met, Foo and Wagner were meant for each other onstage, albeit with their own styles. When he's really at it on his guitar, he could be wrestling a beast with his bare hands. She, meanwhile, saws away on her instrument while swaying in her own private Robert Palmer video.

New songs such as "You Want the Candy," "Dead Sound," and "Black Satin" kept intact the fierce distortion that makes them so transcendent on "Lust Lust Lust." There was the one-two punch of their modest older hits: "That Great Love Sound" and "Love in a Trashcan," which gave them the kind of slinky come-on they were born to sing: "The jukebox churns out songs about sex/ Come on, baby, you're my best fix."

But there were pleasant surprises, too, including a cover of Stereolab's "French Disko" and "Bowels of the Beast," a churning, murky lullaby from the Raveonettes' debut EP, 2002's "Whip It On."

With "Aly, Walk With Me," the Raveonettes capped the evening the way they sound best: in a squall of ferocious feedback and squealing guitars, with drums popping around them like fireworks.

James Reed can be reached at jreed@globe.com.