Sold on its bright and rousing strut

In “Close Call,” one of the best cuts on Rilo Kiley’s terrific new album, “Under the Blacklight,” frontwoman Jenny Lewis notes that there’s a “funny thing about money for sex -- you might get rich but you’ll die by it.”

That line may serve as a metaphor for “Under the Blacklight’s” mixed reception. While critics have enthusiastically embraced the CD (Rilo Kiley’s major-label debut), Internet chatter among old-school fans has centered on complaints about the Los Angeles foursome’s perceived change in direction from wistful indie-folk dreamers to sleek pop-rock sexpots. Some have even hauled out that dreaded word “sellout” to describe the transformation.

Yet if “Under the Blacklight” has cost Rilo Kiley the devotion of the indie underground, the band didn’t seem terribly worried about it Monday night at Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, where a vocal hometown crowd cheered every sound, sight and strut of the final show of the outfit’s two-month world tour.

Perhaps Lewis knew she had this audience in her pocket: Near the end of Rilo Kiley’s 100-minute set, she and guitarist Blake Sennett played an unreleased tune in which Lewis sang of traveling the world before admitting, with relief, “L.A., you always let me back in.” Wild applause made it clear that hasn’t changed.

Augmented by two auxiliary players, the band concentrated on material from “Under the Blacklight” and its excellent predecessor, 2004’s “More Adventurous,” on which Lewis and Sennett (both former child actors who were once romantically involved) first indicated their joint taste for stylistic dress-up. “Adventurous” bounced from bubbly new wave to French cafe pop to tear-in-your-beer country; “Blacklight” adds to the palette Heart-style hair metal and drum-machine R&B.;

In Santa Monica, Rilo Kiley proved that its facility with genre isn’t simply a studio creation. “Portions for Foxes” packed a powerful teen-dream adrenaline rush, with Lewis striking well-deserved rock-goddess poses at center stage. “Breakin’ Up” featured lovely soul-pop harmony vocals. Rich with layered guitars and riding a mellow “Billie Jean” beat, “Dreamworld” shimmered like a perfect hallucination of mid-’70s SoCal cocaine rock.

The group also gave the Rilo Kiley treatment to “Rise Up With Fists!!” from Lewis’ 2006 solo album, “Rabbit Fur Coat,” as well as “Greetings in Braille,” a song by Sennett’s side project, the Elected. It unveiled a full-band version of “Blacklight’s” closer, “Give a Little Love,” which on the album works as a female response to LL Cool J’s tough-guy slow jam, “I Need Love.”

The show’s only misstep came at the end, when the group blew off some road-weary steam with an aimless instrumental jam that would’ve tested the patience of a Grateful Dead fan. Fortunately for Rilo Kiley, L.A. gave the band a pass.