Revengers were on a roll before things nearly fell apart. In 2009, the band dropped Scraps on the Badlands, an ambitious and often downright lush sci-fi concept record that swept aside conventional notions of what rap-rock could be. 

Thus armed, the Revengers crew went about rocking local music joints with the double-barreled vocal assault of Dale "Champ J" Coleman and Eric Quinn. Coleman spit rawhide-tough rhymes while Quinn brought his smooth falsetto and freaky Maynard James Keenan-style stage antics -helping to establish Revengers as one of Tacoma's most unique and compelling new bands.  

But the crew that resurfaces Friday night at The New Frontier Lounge - Revengers' first show in six months - will look and sound noticeably different from what fans have grown accustomed to. That's thanks to the "come to Jesus moment" that followed Quinn's departure to Michigan in January after getting accepted to law school.  

"Eric is my musical soul mate," says Coleman, who had also been Quinn's band mate in defunct local hip-hop group Biznautics. 

"Not having him around was really tough for me," he says during last week's Art on the Ave festival, recalling his band's near breakup. "For a while, I really had to have a moment and think about whether I wanted to do it without him." 

"We had to reset ourselves and determine what we're going to do," adds Revengers beatmeister Jeff Berghammer, a.k.a. Hammer. "We basically decided we're going to go on as Revengers and just have Dale handle vocals. And we've got some tricks up our sleeves ... to make that more palatable to the listening audience. We just wanted to expand the instrumentation, really, and that's kind of what we're doin'."

The revamped Revengers gang also includes bassist-producer Dustin Riecan, guitarist Mason Hargrove and newcomer Tyler Pratt, also on guitar. 

"With past bands, I played with Revengers a lot," says Pratt, also a member of local outfits Trip the Light Fantastic and Mighty High. "I've known these guys for a long time, and they asked me to come out and play with them. I respect them, and they're good cats."

But filling the void left by Quinn hasn't been easy. Revengers spent the last few months coming up with new approaches to their first batch of songs -- approaches that include, for starters, Hammer stepping up on backing vocals. "I've got a microphone in front of my face," he says. "Don Henley style, or Phil Collins Genesis."

But Coleman resisted the temptation to bring in a second rapper, a move he felt could make his band sound too conventional.  

"I love collaborating," he says, "but this is one of the first times that I can really stand on my own and show people what I have to offer. I think it's gonna be fun. It's gonna be emo as fuck, and I'm just gonna rip it ... with my brothers."

Along with Badlands material, fans can expect to hear some new joints at Friday's show. Revengers have started recording at Tacoma's Cottonwood Recording Studio, sessions that have already yielded a finished song. Working title: "Touching Cotton." 

The plan is to release a new E.P., with four or five cuts on it, with a full-length CD to follow. When asked to describe their new musical direction, Hammer calls it "pretty fuckin' proggy." Coleman jokes, "We're like Yes meets Blackalicious." 

"We're not a new band, but it's cool revisiting the old stuff and sort of seeing how we can capitalize on our strengths and bring new blood in and get a new sort of energy," he says. "Playing this show is kind of a testing ground to see what we can do. It's a jump off point, and anything can happen from here."

Joining Revengers on the bill are political punk-hop crew Prayers for Atheists, Night Train and Panama Gold.

[The New Frontier Lounge, Revengers with Prayers for Atheists, Night Train, Panama Gold, Friday, July 15, $5, 9 p.m., 301 E 25^th St., Tacoma, 253.572.4020]