POP MUSIC REVIEW : H.R. Concentrates on Reggae at the Roxy

Playing to a room that reeked of more incense than a New Age bookstore, former Bad Brains vocalist H.R. wreaked less havoc with the conventions of his chosen solo idiom (reggae) than you might expect from the Washington-based leader of America’s premier hard-core punk-reggae fusion outfit.

Whereas his old quartet--which included his drummer brother Earl Hudson, who manned the traps Thursday at the Roxy as well--had the ability to create the sound found when two cultures clash, H.R.’s current sextet spent almost the entire hour-plus second set in lock-step reggae grooves. The sole exception being a fiery, prototypal punk number with reggae cliche lyrics that not only inspired the usual slam dancing at the foot of the stage, but also some unusually heartfelt vocal contributions from a pair of surf punks who hopped on stage midway through the musical melee.

So much for wildness.

H.R.’s fondness for sprawling, squalling metallic guitar whizzums gave the music more of an edge than the spliffed-out riffs coming out of Jamaica these days. The man gets to sing rather than scream his songs as he did with Bad Brains.

Good intentions aside, there wasn’t any hint of invention in the way of grooves, hooks or lyrics all night. Nevertheless, with his foot-long flying dreadlocks, his gap-tooth grin and his marvelously expressive eyes, H.R. remains a fairly charismatic performer. Somewhere down the road he may even decide to break out of his self-imposed musical prison. Then he’ll really be something to watch.