Kim Deal's doing her own thing, which is all good, but you've gotta root for little sis Kelley, who may be sober, but not in that obnoxious, preachy "I-used-to-shoot-up-so-often-I-had-to-start-using-the-veins-in-my-elbow-but- now-I'm-on-a-complete-macrobiotic-diet"kinda way. Instead, Kelley and her band, the Kelley Deal 6000-- two Juan Epstein lookalikes and a Vinnie Barbarino--were keeping it real Wednesday night at Brownies in the East Village, with cigarettes dangling from their mouths and songs about smoking crack from a brillo pad.

The show was one part support group, five parts F.U.N. Yeah, sure, you can throw in one part voyeurism too because there's a certain element of that involved in watching anyone getting their act together. It wasn't a malicious voyeurism though, like going to the Indy 500 to witness a car crash, or watching a Keith Richards interview and laughing at his incoherence. Which brings us back to the support, because we were all happy to see Kelley Deal finally walk onto the stage at 11:30. Her famous friends were there: fellow Breeder, Josephine Wiggs, stood with her back to the bar; Kate and Gabby from Luscious Jackson also showed up. Even the four exchange students from the Netherlands--one kept hitting on my fiancˇ ("Excuse me, are you a regular of this place?") while another went on and on about the great Dutch music scene ("We've got Bettie Serveert and Urban Dance Squad and Golden Earring and 2 Unlimited. Did I mention Bettie Serveert?")--couldn't wait to hear Kelley, despite their questionable musical tastes.

The 6000 did it all: there was a breathy girl-group ballad; a tune dedicated to Wiggs that started out punk, went country-hick for a few seconds, and then reverted to punk; some Pixie-esque surf; some Pixie-esque slow-fast dynamics (she does have Pixies in her genes, y'know); ABBA's "S.O.S.", with two guys from the audience artlessly shouting the chorus; a song about Jesus (sung by the guitarist, who looks like Epstein, but sounds like Horshack); and an ethereal, surf instrumental done with the whole band on the floor. In a word: genius. In two words: Breeders, schmeeders.

--Torey Marcus