The ‘Pus at the Palace: Ferocious, Confused

Psychefunkapus is not the title of a new Red Hot Chili Peppers album, but the name of the San Francisco quintet that played a heavy mixture of funk, speed-metal and hard rock--just like the Red Hot Chili Peppers--at the Palace on Friday. The band hit even more genres than the Peppers, throwing everything from a rush of progressive stadium-rock to a strange brew of Cream-y acid-flash into the mix.

But there’s one area where the ‘Pus can’t compare to the Peps: charisma. Psychefunkapus features two frontmen, Manny Martinez (black, hard-working, punky-gruff) and Gene Genie (white, with a smooth voice better suited to a folk-art band than a skate-rock jam). Their ferocious energy couldn’t disguise a confused lyric stance that one moment advocated affirmative youth power (“We Are the Young”), then disparaged a woman as a “Slut Child” the next. For now, Psychefunkapus is a concept riffing in search of a hook, rocking loud yet saying nothing.