Live: The Pretty Reckless bring their medicine bag to Pontiac

Hard rock group the Pretty Reckless performed at Pontiac’s Crofoot Ballroom Tuesday, as part of the group’s Medicine Tour.

Hey look, I went a whole sentence without mentioning Taylor Momsen!

The Pretty Reckless is of course fronted by Momsen, the actress and former “Gossip Girl” starlet who deserves credit for going all the way with her band. The Pretty Reckless has been on tour for the better part of the last two years and has been hitting the road hard; in that time they’ve played Detroit four times.

Wednesday’s concert was the band’s biggest area headlining show to-date, playing to a few hundred fans in the main room at the Crofoot. (Last year the group headlined the smaller Pike Room in the same venue.) The 50-minute show centered on material from the group’s debut album “Light Me Up” and its new EP “Hit Me Like a Man,” which hit stores Tuesday.

The show is pretty much all about Momsen, the 18-year-old growler who fronts the band and does a convincing job of playing the rock star role. Songs like “Make Me Wanna Die” and “Goin’ Down” worked best, with Momsen working the stage and getting her microphone wrapped up in her long, stringy blonde hair. A pair of cover songs weren’t as convincing, with a stagnant cover of System of a Down’s “Aerials” adding nothing to the original and the show-closing take on the White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” not fitting, thematically, with the rest of the harder-edged set. But even if her bandmates look twice her age, Momsen remains a draw, and rises the Pretty Reckless above other celebrity band outfits.