Culture’s Roots Appear More Vegas Than Jamaica

Roots reggae is like 12-bar blues: The same elements are recycled with minimal variation, so it’s often a thin line that separates material laden with genre cliches and music that powerfully evokes the best aspects of the tradition. Culture’s last two albums both landed well on the positive side of that border, but the veteran vocal trio’s hour-plus performance before a sparse crowd of 1,000 at the Hollywood Palladium on Friday reached those heights only sporadically .

At times, Culture seemed to be veering surprisingly close to roots Vegas culture. Lead singer Joseph Hill’s blue cutaway jacket, silver sparkle tie and matching handkerchief spoofed show-biz glitz, but the arrangements were too techno-slick early in the set. Culture’s finest moments came when it stripped the sheen away and achieved reggae’s characteristic trance dance behind the mesmerizing harmonies of “Iron Sharpening Iron,” “I’m Worried” and the Rasta/gospel hybrid “This Train.”

Second-billed Sugar Minott’s effervescent work ethic was severely undercut by the local AKB backing band, whose plodding tempos on the slower songs weighted Minott down with a rhythmic anchor.