SAN FRANCISCO--Behold, the most exciting rock and roll band on the planet.

In front of a packed house at the Fillmore last night, TV on the Radio delivered the kind of performance that sends an electro-charge through your body and leaves you wanting more.

Whether it was the pulsating beat that always seemed to be building, even when it slowed to a crawl, or the undeniably soulful tension in frontman Tunde Adebimpe's voice, it was a night that turned the build-and-release rock formula on its head. It was quite a ride, so much so that the show's normally adequate 85 minutes seemed a bit clipped.

And it wasn't even the band's best show. Several fans claimed that Wednesday night's set, before an equally packed Fillmore house, was far better. But even at half-mast, this was thrilling music that always felt ready to explode.

UK post-punk band the Noisettes kicked the night off right, with singer Shingai Shoniwa laying down throbbing bass lines and sounding like a cross between Portishead's Beth Gibbons and Blondie's Debby Harry. Highlights included "Signs," a scorcher off the group's 2005 debut EP, and "Count of Monte Christo," a hand-clap-driven track from the band's 2006 debut album, What's the Time Mr. Wolf.

The quintet of TVOTR took the stage in waves, with Adebimpe and guitarist Kyp Malone leading the band into a spare, atmospheric version of "Tonight," off the group's highly acclaimed 2006 album Return to Cookie Mountain.

The track personified the band's sound, which is built around the high-octave harmonies of Adebimpe and Malone, the noise rock guitar riffs of Malone and Dave Sitek, and the soaring rhythm driven by drummer Jaleel Bunton and bassist Gerard Smith. That fusion amounts to as much of a formula as the band sticks to, allowing plenty of room for experimentation.

In many ways, the band's sound defies categorization. It's terribly soulful but noisy, experimental yet loaded with poppy harmonies, and surging but never peaking.

Adebimpe is one of the most charismatic frontmen to come along in a while, but not in the preening, posturing way employed by most rock mag cover boys. His passion for the music is vivid, and as he spastically bounced on the stage last night, it seemed like the music had taken hold of him.

The night's highlights included Cookie Mountain's first single, "Wolf Like Me," in which Bunton pounded the skins and Malone and Sitek laid into a feedback frenzy. Over that fury, Adebimpe bellowed lines like, "Got a curse I cannot lift / Shines when the sunset shifts / When the moon is round and full / Gotta bust that box gotta gut that fish."

For an encore, the band brought up members of the Noisettes and the Oakland-based band Subtle for the soulful, percussive, and uplifting "A Method" and "Let the Devil In." Both tracks seemed to transform the Fillmore into the kind of church that lets David Bowie and Prince take charge of a gospel choir. It was that kind of night.