Stellastarr*, courtesy.

SAN FRANCISCO — Stellastarr* were once one of the hottest buzz bands out the Brooklyn new-wave movement. But while some bands like Interpol have continued to climb beyond buzz-band status and others have fallen away long ago, Stellastarr* are content with their place.

The quartet of singer Shawn Christensen, bassist Amanda Tannen, drummer Arthur Kremer and guitarist Michael Jurin have long ago lost the buzz label. They followed their self-titled 2003 release with a more cohesive follow-up, “Harmonies for the Haunted,” in 2005.

This week, they took a break from recording their third album to play some new material at shows in Los Angeles and Thursday at the Noise Pop Music Festival at the Great American Music Hall.

The band is recording a new album in New York, and the Noise Pop show was a chance to get some feedback from fans. The new songs, such as “Warchild” and “Graffiti Eyes” sound a lot like their other songs — not that there’s anything wrong with that if they are happy where they are as a band.

All four members were sharp on the new songs, which have their usual catchy angular chords and notes, but the crowd connected more with the favorites, such as “Sweet Troubled Soul” and “My Coco.”

It is clear they are at their best with minimum distortion, when Jurin’s echo, delay-laden hooks can be heard over everything else; not unlike Coldplay, but set to a faster tempo.

The show was more of a public practice for Stellastarr*. The music and the showmanship was there. Jurin has the writhing around on the floor with his guitar thing down pat. What was missing was the interaction with the crowd. Other than the perfunctory “thank yous” and the “we like San Francisco,” there was no communication. It would have helped if Christensen told a back story or two about the new songs.

The opening bands did more than hold their own but didn’t get much playing time or a response from the crowd. After a short but strong set by local post-punk band The Hundred Days, Seattle’s Throw Me The Statue took 25 minutes to set up and then proceeded to play for about 15 minutes.

“Does anybody have any questions or anything?” singer Scott Reitherman asked the crowd mid-set. There wasn’t much of a response.

Local favorites Birdmonster, the next band to take the stage, performed the best and proved they should be headlining Noise Pop shows.

Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter.