Pop Reviews : Poi Dog Pondering: Innocence Matured

There’s little so elusive, artistically speaking, as innocence. Once a musician has the wherewithal to express it, he or she has generally lost it. And few who do express it escape being cloyingly precious (Edie Brickell) and/or petulant (Jonathan Richman’s lesser moments). So much more the reason to praise Austin, Texas’ Poi Dog Pondering, which seemed to have lost a bit of its stock-in-trade innocence on its third and latest album, “Volo Volo,” but offered it intact Thursday in a buoyant performance at Bogart’s in Long Beach. In fact, though it’s an oxymoronic concept, it would seem that the band’s innocence has matured.

Now, finding the musical/spiritual common ground between the Grateful Dead and Talking Heads seems like no innocent feat. But front-Dog Frank Orrall’s eternal smile and the eight-member band’s all-embracing communal spirit eliminated any suspicion of calculation Thursday. So did the encore of George McRae’s ‘70s disco-lite hit “Rock Your Baby,” which was played without a hint of cynicism or snide commentary, but rather simply because the Poi Dogs like it.

That stays true throughout the band’s blend of styles--most using African reference points in its rippling guitars and polyrhythms for a mix that is best described as neo-hippie world beat. There’s no acrid, arid geopolitical correctness in the presentation, just a joy in discovery from these Dead/Heads.

And if the true mark of innocence is hope, Orrall nailed it by telling the young fans in the packed club that he’s already marching into the 21st Century, where he expects to find a clean slate for our troubled world.