After selling out the Middle East in July, pills Savages returned to Boston three months later, health stepping up to the larger confines of the Paradise. But, viagra perhaps because they had been here so recently, or because it was a random Tuesday night, they attracted a sparser crowd than the one that packed the Middle East in mid-summer. Too bad, because the Paradise show was better than the first one.

The night got started late, with doors opening an hour behind schedule because of travel delays. But the Sox were winning on TV, and that (plus four Maker’s Marks) made the wait bearable. Multi-instrumentalist Duke Garwood – who, like Savages, hails from London – opened the show with a set of mostly guitar-based tunes (he also pulled out a saxophone for a couple of numbers). His songs are largely instrumental, with some mumbled lyrics, and are dark, dark, dark, like being stuck outside at night in a swamp (or perhaps a moor, since he’s from the other side of the pond).

Savages opened their 12-song set with “I Am Here” and “City’s Full,” but the show really kicked into gear with “Shut Up” and “I Need Something New,” with lead singer Jehnny Beth getting right down in the face of the crowd (one of the benefits of the still-intimate Paradise, with its lack of barriers between the stage and the crowd).

Other highlights included “Waiting for a Sign,” with Fay Milton’s drums echoing like gunshots through the hall; “Marshal Dear,” for which Duke Garwood came back out with his saxophone to accompany them; and “She Will,” a ragged, explosive number that was the high point of the show.

Some semblance of a mosh pit broke out near the end of the show, during the tender strains of “Husbands” – “Whoa, I woke up and saw the face of a guy/I don’t know who he was, he had no eyes…god I want to get rid of it, god I want to get rid of it…my house my bed my husbands.” It would make a good prom theme. Then they closed the night with “Fuckers” – letting Gemma Thompson’s reverb-drenched guitar and Ayse Hassan’s pulsating bass line have the last word.

No encore – Savages, who dress all in black, are too cool for that.