FAR FROM ROTTEN

D.R.I. may stand for Dirty Rotten Imbeciles, but this San Francisco-based punk-to-metal crossover band was anything but imbecilic during its Saturday night show at Fender’s Ballroom. While most punk bands appropriating heavy-metal qualities sound sloth-like and vacuous, D.R.I. proved to be a resilient, tough and intelligent example of this hybrid. The key for the young quartet is that it can handle both metal and punk styles with almost equal skill and panache. There is little of the usual awkwardness when the band shifts gears from the blur-like pace of straightforward punk to the slower, more grinding aspects of heavy metal. In fact, D.R.I. feels so comfortable with this merger that its songs often make abrupt shifts between the two styles.