PORT CHESTER, NY - Self's Matt Mahaffey politely asked the soundman to turn up the monitors to his guitar, following the opening "Lost My Senses." After "Stewardess," the rawboned lead singer reversed his decision, a sequence that was duplicated several times throughout the band's show, at 7 Willow Street in Port Chester, NY.

Perhaps if Mahaffey had his way, he'd bring the mixing console on stage and toy with the levels during the songs - the only way to balance his whimsy with the music's tumult.

You see, Mahaffey is used to being in control, having shotgunned every instrument used on Self's debut "Subliminal Plastic Motives." Here, the precocious 22-year-old - who looks like a cross between Andy Warhol and the host of Squirt TV - made the graceful transition from despot to orchestrator, guiding the five-piece band through a tight set of volatile songs from "Subliminal," to a handful of new tunes, spacy samples and bizarre covers.

Mahaffey took turns on guitar, bass and keys; Jason Rawlings pounded away - often one-handed - at his non-conformist sideways-turned drum set; Matt's brother/guitarist Mike provided haunting background vocals; bassist Tim Nobles appeared lost in thought in a Stevie Wonder-like bob; and keyboardist Chris James, looking prim and proper in a collared shirt, provided samples and a honky cat vibe.

During the breakthrough hit "Cannon," the room vibrated and once lifeless moppets cascaded into each other to the ambivalence of a determined Self. The mood was amplified later with the anthem-ish "So Low," with the indignant mantra, "so low that I wish I was dead."

In between fits of fury, Self managed to be adorable, sampling the guitar riff from Michael Jackson's "Beat It" and playing the opening verse from the "Theme From Sesame Street." The grift was lulling the listener into a false sense of compliance with one genre or volume, then stopping on a dime and moving full-throttle into another groove.

"Dog U R," an open letter to a Utah music critic who dissed "Subliminal," featured a snazzy jazzy piano intro before reaching its perfunctory guitar-layered apex. "Superstar," began with a Gregorian chant before entering the Nine Inch Nails zone and the most-frenetic "Borateen," contained the sample of a drowning man struggling for air (well, that's what it sounded like).

For a band that didn't become a band until after "Subliminal" was in the can, Self remarkably captures the timing, melody and spirit of Mahaffey's creation with a little more guile, a little more flair and a lot more noise - pure Self-indulgence.