Two words I never like to hear at a live music concert: technical difficulties.
Halfway through only their second song, California funk rockers Incubus were forced to call an early intermission due to a power outage. You can’t very well expect them to play without their instruments working, right? “Should we just keep playing if it cuts out again? …Okay, we should play the next song quickly,” joked lead singer Brandon Boyd onstage with his band mates. It’s a pity. Opener ‘Megalomaniac’ and Boyd’s spitfire verses on rap rock ‘Pardon Me’ were sublime – it would have been nice if we had got to hear the whole songs, though. Shame on you, Entertainment Centre sound engineers!
But bouncing back after the (thankfully last) hiccup with ‘Adolescents’, the rest of the night flowed seamlessly; almost too seamlessly. For a rock group, the lack of screaming into the crowd, expletives or middle-finger gestures didn’t go unnoticed. Front man Brandon Boyd did take his shirt off, but his dainty, animated movements suggested less of a rock star macho-complex and more of a ‘Well, I just like to dance without my shirt on’.
But then again, Incubus arent’ your typical rock group. Too mainstream for the indie kids, too edgy to be mainstream, Incubus have always followed their own bliss. Whether that be taking 5 year breaks in between album releases or eschewing the archetypal rock set-up for turntable scratches and synths, Incubus have certainly carved their own niche in the world of alternative rock, and picked the best songs to show off their eclectic sound.
Consequence of Sound called Incubus’ most recent album If Not Now, When? “slow, elevator-music”, but whoever wrote that would be eating their words after hearing these songs live. Title track ‘If Not Now, When?’ and ‘In The Company of Wolves’ were immaculate; the kind of songs made for a live setting. Perhaps the set was too ballad heavy (don’t think I didn’t see people stepping outside during ‘Isadore’), but it was all part of the band’s charm.
Saving fan favourites ‘Wish You Were Here’, ‘Nice to Know You’ and ‘Drive’ towards the end of the set made waiting through the ballads and mid-tempos all the more worthwhile, and ‘Switchblade’, one of my favourite tracks off their latest album, was the band’s second and more successful attempt at a hip hop, rap rock flavoured number.
All sound troubles aside, this would have been a near perfect show. But that’s hardly Incubus’ fault. The band knows what they like and knows what they’re good at. And anyone that can please a crowd while still keeping their creative juices flowing gets a gold star from me.
Incubus' album If Not Now, When? is in stores now
Photos by John Goodridge
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