TORONTO - On her first album Made Of Bricks, Kate Nash was the cute British newcomer who sang about needing a boy’s kiss when not singing about foundations and mouthwash.

But can the slightly quirky Nash, 22, now be simultaneously cute and shocking?

Judging by her sold-out show Monday night at The Mod Club in support of her new album My Best Friend Is You, it’s a bit of yes and no.

Opening a North American jaunt behind the record, Nash has put aside the sweet, sugary piano pop found on the strong selling debut for a meaner, at times potty-mouthed, guitar-driven sophomore record.

Heck, even before she started her roughly 80-minute set, a rather odd statement was displayed below her keyboard stating the usefulness of a crudely described female body part.

Fortunately Nash and her four-piece band led by drummer Elliott Andrews were in good humor for most of the show, with Nash getting under the skin of a few in the crowd by asking for quiet during I Hate Seagulls, a song which initially didn’t quite hit the mark.

What the singer – wearing a black and white striped dress whose bottom was attached to her sleeves – often hit gold with was a ‘60s styled soul-meets-rock flavoring on the new songs, especially the lead single Do-Wah-Doo as well as Kiss That Grrrl. Meanwhile R n B Side, a b-side off My Best Friend Is You, was a tune Nash described as what Destiny’s Child would be had she been in the group. Here she swayed to the song while uttering the cheeky lyric, “Why did you have to be such a wanker?”

Nash, who thanked the audience often when not trying to make out what people were shouting at her, also delved into her first album with instant crowd-pleasing pop ditties like Foundations, Mouthwash and the chipper Beatles-tinged Merry Happy. Most of the crowd drowned out Nash’s vocals on these songs but other new numbers which definitely held their own included the rowdy rockabilly romp entitled Take Me To A Higher Plane, Don’t You Want To Share The Guilt? and I’ve Got A Secret.

The somewhat hit-and-miss feel of the new album might have been best exemplified by the show opener Paris which hit the ground running, something which couldn’t be said about Mansion Song near the homestretch. Here Nash did a stream-of-conscious rant behind a growing wall of sound. A decent try but perhaps left to the likes of Patti Smith or PJ Harvey.

One thing which nobody could argue with Nash about was her affection for super cute openers, er, Supercute! The quirky, humorous New York teenage trio – featuring June Lei, Julia Cumming and Rachel Trachtenburg (The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players) – resembled the grandkids of Tiny Tim playing some songs on ukuleles. The group managed to surprise a few with rather nifty covers of Pink Floyd’s Pigs and Misty Mountain Hop by Led Zeppelin.