POP MUSIC REVIEWS : FIERY CRUZADOS

Cruzados has endured a string of false starts and bad breaks that would cause most bands to pull out of the rock rat race altogether. But by the looks of things, this story may have a happy ending.

In the local band’s fiery, frequently stunning show Wednesday at the Roxy, singer-guitarist Tito Larriva and lead guitarist Marshall Rohner constructed frameworks for well-crafted songs over a variety of crunching, muscular rhythms. Rohner then blasted off into his own sonic stratosphere, reeling off piercing, melodic guitar lines.

Chief songwriter Larriva is an expressive vocalist who applied a vein-popping intensity to bittersweet songs about regret, disappointment and longing--most of them from Cruzados’ new album “After Dark.” When it comes to enduring bad news and reappraising dreams, this man knows whereof he sings.

With this kind of performing and songwriting horsepower, Cruzados may be only an album away from becoming an exceptional rock band. But the quartet has to be careful not to be done in by its own ambition: It’s already a bit too smooth around the edges, as evidenced by the smoke machine and the gratuitous posing that have been part of its shows the last couple of years. Larriva’s loosest move Wednesday--pulling a guy out of the audience to sing “Secret Agent Man”--showed up those well-oiled Hollywood machinations for what they are.