Crocodiles at the Vagabond May 20

Crocodiles’ transition from its posthardcore past is complete. The San Diego duo of Brandon Welchez and Charles Rowell held onto a bit of the brute force from their old outfits, the Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower and Some Girls, for the first Crocodiles record, 2009’s Summer of Hate. (Though the static-drenched postpunk jam “I Wanna Kill” is less severe than it sounds.) Meanwhile, the shimmering, glam beauty of last year’s Sleep Forever shows these guys have a solid grasp of every sort of pop music — this time it’s a fuzzy, dreamy narrative that’ll overload your speakers while it stirs an uncontainable emotional swell in your chest. Carrying these songs on two sets of shoulders proved to be too much in concert, though. What used to be a stripped-down, squalling two-piece live show has grown into a full band, which now includes drummer Alianna Kalaba, bassist Marco Gonzalez, and keyboardist Robin Eisenberg.