When listening to Ambulance, it’s easy to play a game of “spot the post-punk signifiers”: The local trio’s most recent album, 2010’s People in Places, features taunt guitar lines, lockstep drumming, and brooding baritone vocals from singer and guitarist Sam Peterson. When combined with the tucked-in button-downs and leather jackets the band dons in its press photo, the Factory Records comparisons practically write themselves. However, Ambulance isn’t trying to put on some sort of elaborate Joy Division impersonation. Though People in Places was recorded when drummer Dillon Christopher and bassist Spencer Miller were still in high school, it confidently melds post-punk with modern influences —think The Strokes or Interpol—in a way that amounts to far more than pastiche. Live, these churning, driving songs should translate into nothing less than a raucous rock show. With The West, Us on Roofs. ANDREW GOSPE

Wed., Jan. 25, 9 p.m., 2012