POP MUSIC CAPSULES : SINGER AL GREEN: HE’S BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

In a transfixing performance Saturday at the Beverly Theatre, sexy-soul-singer-turned-sexy-minister Al Green soliloquized on sin and salvation, temperance, temptation and Tina Turner, God and the Grammys. He handed out roses and decried the rock ‘n’ roll he used to sing, then teased the crowd with lines from the old hits.

Backed by a five-piece band and female vocal trio, Green twitched and undulated and slipped seamlessly from song to sermon and back again. His elastic, eccentric voice went from stormy declamation to ecstatic, silken sighs that brought you to the edge of your seat.

If the atmosphere didn’t hit peak ecstasy, it might have been because he took the stage (for the first of two shows) an hour later than scheduled. The Beverly announced that his plane had arrived late, but then Green mentioned that he’d been in Oxnard the night before. The Lord isn’t the only one who moves in mysterious ways.