Foxy Shazam

Eric Sean Nally has a big voice – like, Freddie Mercury on poppers big. He also has a mild theatrical streak, having been known to eat smoldering cigarettes on stage, and sing while hanging upside down like a bat. For these reasons, Nally and his Foxy Shazam band mates have elicited comparisons to Queen, Muse and other darlings of the prog-rock exhibitionist set. Nally’s mustachioed flamboyance has also sustained the mistaken belief that he’s gay – a rumor that he politely quashed on the song “Wanna-Be Angel” from the band’s self-titled 2009 sophomore album. Whether or not Nally is a full-blown “friend of Dorothy” or merely a passive admirer is probably moot, anyway – it’s that bent-showman essence that makes him fun to watch, and he brings it. Coupled with guitarist Loren Daniel Turner’s wailing metal riffs and keyboardist Sky White’s vaudeville jangles, it all sounds a bit like The Mars Volta as reconceived by the cast of Glee.

Mon., Oct. 25, 8 p.m., 2010