As one of America’s premier underground labels, Kill Rock Stars has always been a haven for strong voices and artists who make challenging, but not necessarily alienating music. Wednesday night’s showcase at the Gramercy Theater proved just how much variety the label has within that aesthetic — Marnie Stern, Mika Miko, Mary Timony, and Xiu Xiu all have very different sounds within that punk/experimental grounding, but they all put on fine shows.

Marnie Stern kicked off the night with a furious yet playful set of songs. She’s a rare bird: a great guitarist and charismatic frontwoman. The pointed melodies and tribal pulse of her music recalled not just one of her major influences, Sleater-Kinney, but also the earliest, most dangerous-sounding songs from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs — passed down, probably, from the No Wave inspirations Stern and the YYYs share.

Next was Mika Miko, who, with their leggings, skinny jeans and multicolored hair, looked like five girls from the crowd who leapt onstage and began playing just for the fun of it. In fact, their set was probably the most fun of the whole evening, mixing punk, hardcore and punk-funk with a toy telephone used as a microphone and lots and lots of pogoing. Drummer Kate Hall did a great job of leading the band into mischievous territory at one moment, and heavy, primal terrain the next. Just when their set threatened to get samey, Mika Miko closed it with a noise jam complete with fearsome vocals any death-metal band would be proud to call their own.

Mary Timony brought the tight, fiercely catchy side of her music to the showcase, playing a precise, energetic set that showed off the intuitive flow between her, Devin Ocampo, and Chad Molter. Though the band focused on songs from Ex Hex and Timony’s latest album The Shapes We Make — including an excellent version of “Telephone” — they also went deeper into her songbook. Stripped of their keyboards and mystical vibe, songs from Mountains and The Golden Dove fit in perfectly with the rest of the set, their tricky tempo changes the last link to how they sounded originally. Timony and crew went all the way back to Helium’s The Dirt of Luck for “Superball” and “Silver Angel”; though she introduced these “really old” songs by saying “You probably don’t know them,” the cheers they drew from the crowd proved otherwise.

The audience showed its love for Xiu Xiu in a completely different way: it paid attention to this vulnerable, violent performance in rapt silence. As on Xiu Xiu’s albums, Jamie Stewart drew in the crowd with whispers, then smacked it in the face with screaming and random, violent percussion attacks; at one point, he dropped his pick and shredded his fingers into his guitar. In concert, the highs and lows in the band’s music are even more extreme. The set went deep into Xiu Xiu’s unsettling, ugly-beautiful world, with drama that never felt forced; the guitar seizures on “Bunny Gamer” and the hymnal version of “Fabulous Muscles” both felt completely organic, while the way the intricate percussion, keyboards, harmonium, and guitar ebbed and flowed during the set bordered on orchestral. Xiu Xiu also included a few of the more straightforward, post-punk and synth-pop influenced songs they do so well, including a much-appreciated “I Luv the Valley OH!” On the whole, though, this was an intense, demanding, rewarding show for Xiu Xiu and the crowd alike — you know it’s a powerful performance when the band and the audience both have to stop for a moment to catch their breath.