“Yeah, we missed you too,” said Karen O. of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, basking in the stage lights and adulation of the Bowery Ballroom on Friday night. It was the second of three “warmup shows” the band played at smaller (for it) clubs in New York City over the weekend to prepare itself for the March 28 release and associated tour of its new album, “Show Your Bones” (Interscope).

After a year-and-a-half long absence from New York’s stages, Karen O.’s brilliant energy and reflective designer costume were greeted Friday like a first glimpse of spring sun. Wearing a bejeweled silver leotard with blowsy cuffs, silver sash, and black tights, she was indeed radiant. She strutted, hip-jutted, and high-stepped across the stage, playing with two long feather quills like a seasoned Vegas showgirl. At other moments she carried a disco ball slung over her shoulder like a knapsack. Drummer Brian Chase and guitarists Nick Zinner and Imaad Wasif (who’s now touring with the band) dressed entirely in black or drab olive so as not to distract from the shining star of the show – not that they could, short of lighting themselves on fire.

The band has explained its prolonged hiatus as a way to get perspective on and distance from the success of “Fever To Tell,” its star-making and gold-selling 2003 debut. But the break has also served to heighten anticipation of its new work. For several months, music blogs have trafficked in rumors about the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album, including the entertaining false one (fed toMTV.com) that it would be a concept album about Karen O.’s cat, titled “Coco Beware.” Elsewhere, the band has described it as “YYY campfire sing-alongs” and like putting “your finger in a light socket.”

Judging from Friday’s set, which consisted almost entirely of new material, it will be all and none of the above. The songs were too rough and varied to draw many conclusions from; several began with long, repetitive sections of spare drums and alternating notes on the guitar, then built to blitzes of key board and white noise or devolved into sludgy grunge riffs. One song called “Mysteries” opened with a barrage of cymbals and feedback; Karen O. made a stabbing motion at her stomach that was not unlike the way the song felt. Others were minimal and haunted, not unlike “Hello Tomorrow,” which Karen O. recently wrote with Squeak E. Clean for an Adidas ad campaign. Squeak E. Clean also produced the new record.

Hearing the massive tribal drums that open “Gold Lion,” the first single from the new album and the only song yet to see the light of day (along with a diplo remix), someone started singing “We Will Rock You” in time to the beat. It does have anthemic appeal, building through acoustic guitar and chirping “ooh oohs” to white noise guitar solos. Even better on first listen was “Turn Into,” the song that closed the main set. Zinner’s guitar sounded like a synthesizer through most of it, and the whole song culminated with a bleary 3 a.m. disco sheen. Apart from these songs, however, little of the new material was as memorable or arresting as the staccato ecstasies of older songs like “Pin” and “Tick” (neither of which were played), and the crowd reaction was subdued.

It was particularly interesting to gauge the reaction of younger fans (a small minority at Friday’s show), since they’re the ones who’ll decide whether the band continues its march toward the mainstream or recedes to art-star status. Karen O. has become a kind of apocalyptic cheerleader to the high school set. Search for “Yeah Yeah Yeahs” on YouTube.com and you’ll get nearly as many videos of young fans dancing to the group’s songs as actual videos of the band.

I found myself sandwiched between two such fans during the concert. Seeing me taking notes, the young woman in front of me turned around midway through the set and asked, “Are you writing that it sucks?” This was her blunt assessment. The young man behind me was more enthusiastic. He wore a freshly purchased lime green YYY T-shirt and a broad smile through the new songs, but he was clearly biding his time for the hits. It was only at the familiar opening notes to “Maps” that he started pogoing and screaming in my ear.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs will perform at Roseland Ballroom on May 2 (239 W. 52nd Street, between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, 212-247-0200).