Caspian's instrumental set says it all

3rd Annual Last Night On Earth
Featuring Caspian, Seneca, Constants, Junius, and Shore Leave
At: the Middle East, Friday night

CAMBRIDGE -- Not surprisingly, the lineup for Allston-based Radar Recordings' third annual Last Night on Earth bash included bands that release music through the indie label. But, in the spirit of musical community rather than gig-as-storefront, those performances were bookended by outsiders. The headlining spot was left to one of Boston's brightest new hopes, North Shore post rock quartet, Caspian.

Caspian is that rare thing, a hungry, ambitious, young rock band that isn't all pose and pout and actually has something real to say and the talent to pull it off. At the sold-out Middle East show, Caspian's hugely passionate, all-instrumental music spoke volumes. And, at times, at very loud volume. This experiment with loudness, a post rock trait, accelerated the effect of Caspian's vociferous ruminations on life, love, and the universe. Alternating thoughtful, ebbing passages with engulfing sonic attacks, the music's juxtaposed sweetness and force captured the human state's duality of frailty and endeavor, doubt and determination.

Guitarists Calvin Joss and Philip Jamieson, and bassist Chris Friedrich, formed a consolidated interactive frontline of melody and noize. But there was no ignoring the cascading or driving runs from drummer Joe Vickers. Though he was physically positioned behind the guitarists, the musicality of his playing added no mere backbeat, but another voice.

The short but mighty set kicked off with the swoon and swell of ''ASA," and soon hit the tight, all-out thrall of ''Crawlspace." The beauty of the band's debut EP, ''You Are the Conductor," which was released this fall by Beverly indie Dopamine Records, was recalled in the perfectly formed trilogy ''Quovis/Further Up/Further In," a gorgeous atmospheric triptych with an anthemic introduction and an awesome finale. Joss carefully picked out the melody of the closing song, ''Moksha," on xylophone before his bandmates joined in to add thrashing guitars and drums: A lullaby before the storm.

Earlier bands, Seneca, Constants, Junius, and openers Shore Leave, were not easy acts to follow. They shared a similar intensity to Caspian but added individual twists from hardcore to prog to new wave pop.

But these bands added conventional musical signposts: words.