Fountains of Wayne play the Wolf Den

Hipster irony is only painful and bad 99 percent of the time.

Then the largely magnificent power pop band Fountains of Wayne will release a new CD where they make delightful fun of such things and, for a while, it's not so painful. In fact, it's melodically wonderful.

FOW songwriters Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger are beautifully adept at lampooning all segments of society with innately catchy melodies - but here's a little secret: they actually have great empathy for the characters in their tunes. That's a delicate commodity.

The band, touring behind their latest pretty great album, "Sky Full of Holes," plays a free show Friday in the Mohegan Sun Wolf Den. Hope for new gems as well as "Fine Day for a Parade," "Strapped for Cash" and "Go, Hippie" - and count on hits such as "I-95," "Denise," "Mexican Wine" and, yes, "Stacy's Mom."

- RICK KOSTER

Fountains of Wayne, 8 p.m. Friday, Mohegan Sun Wolf Den; free; 1-888-664-3426, mohegansun.com, fountainsofwayne.com.