INCUBUS and HOME TOWN HERO, E Center, Oct. 5.
Seeing Incubus live comes with a few responsibilities — you have to keep an open mind and listen closely.
What Incubus seems on the surface is not exactly what fans get in concert, as the group's multi-media performance proved Saturday night.
Sure, vocalist Brandon Boyd can unleash the stereotypical angst that fans expect from bands like Incubus. And the group's taste in clothing — second-hand frump — is not unlike any other punk band's.
But Incubus proved something else on stage during its Utah stop on the "Morning View" tour.
The band's live performance was a mesmerizing light show over a stage that rose in a half-circle toward the back, framed by huge video screens that often flashed images most would find relaxing.
With its slow introduction, the five-man crew incited an instant mosh pit with "Circles" and "Nice To Know You," from their new CD. And it would be slow intros into several offerings from a 19-song set that ironically defined the evening with Incubus.
Screaming? Yes, and if it wasn't Boyd, it was thousands of teenage girls, who voiced their appreciation when the lead singer ditched his shirt.
Indiscernible noise and distortion? You bet.
But there was much more.
After the songs "Wish You Were Here," "Warning," "Clean," "Make Yourself" and "I Miss You," five became two as Mike Einziger's acoustic guitar and a more tame Boyd offered up "Mexico" and "11 a.m." while lounging on a couch. It was at this point that fans heard what able vocalization skills Boyd brings to the stage.
The images and video — some aquatic, others glimpses into space — for the stage's backdrop added another layer to a multi-dimensional show that often leaked sounds from the man known as DJ Kilmore. His imagination on the turntables gave the evening its dreamy, almost ethereal feeling.
Fittingly, the evening ended — not before the radio hit "Drive," of course — with an encore that included "The Warmth" and "Aqueous Transmission," which Boyd describes as the band's "most ambitious work to date."
With Boyd starting the transmission with a few lines from The Doors' "The End," Einziger strummed a Ko-kyu, a stringed instrument; Dirk Lance plucked a stand-up bass and Jose Pasillas came out from behind the skins to bang on a huge drum. The song ended gradually, with each band mate leaving the stage one by one.
After Incubus, little memory was left of openers Home Town Hero.
E-MAIL: sspeckman@desnews.com