Jennifer Herrema of Royal Trux lets the devil horns fly without apology in the heavier moments of "Western Xterminator," from the swagger of "Balls to Pass" to the creepier Ozzy-esque riffage of "Dude Love." There's even a track so punishing, it sounds like an audition tape for second stage at this year's Ozzfest.

	Jennifer Herrema: From Royal Trux to RTX. Click photo for larger image. RTX With: Totimoshi and The Dirty Faces. Where: 31st Street Pub, Strip. When: 10 p.m. tomorrow. Admission: $10; 412-391-8334.

She eases you into the onslaught with a flute-driven ballad that flirts with the trippier side of '60s folk and revisits her former band's scuzz-rock deconstruction of "Exile"-era Stones on "Knightmare & Mane," her favorite track. But for the most part, you get the impression this is not the type of record Royal Trux would be making at this point if she and Neil Hagerty had kept it together.

"I don't think he would have been against the sound so much," says Herrema, although that seems unlikely. "But the collaborative effort that kind of defined Royal Trux was the coming together of two different sensibilities. There were things that he loved and cherished and things that I loved and cherished. So therefore, it wouldn't be as straightforward because there was always the kind of push and pull that created the tension."

Asked if she sees RTX as an extension of the old band, Herrema hedges her bets.

"By default," she says, "yes, because it would be an extension of me, so therefore, inadvertently, it's an extension. I was one half of Royal Trux, and this is me. The intention is not necessarily to be an extension of Royal Trux, but all the stuff I brought to Royal Trux is stuff I bring to RTX. So there's always gonna be some common ground because I'm still me."

And despite the band name, Herrema is clearly in the mood for moving on. There are no Royal Trux songs in the set list and, for as much as she's never liked being a frontperson, she has been enjoying the freedom of leading her own band.

"The other way of working was awesome," she says. "It was what I loved doing. But I'm pretty much digging the freedom right now -- the freedom to bring an idea to fruition without having to have checks and balances constantly. It's just the lack of tension, I suppose."

To make up for that lack of Royal Trux songs, she's been working in songs from the next release.

"We've got a couple new songs that we've started playing," she says. "I've just been formulating the parameters, the guidelines. The first record, to me -- and I'm using these words very loosely -- was more of a pop sensibility and the newer one was more a band all in, where the vocals weren't up in your face. They're part of a real band. The next record, I'd love to bridge the gap between the two of those. And that's a really loose way of describing what is just starting to be formulated in my head but that's the way I want it to sound."