POP MUSIC REVIEW : Mark Curry’s in Pain as He Confesses at Roxy

You’d think that the idea of a punk approach to poetic, confessional folk-blues would have possibilities, but after being bludgeoned by the pain-filled soul-searching of Mark Curry at the Roxy on Thursday, you might be inclined to reconsider.

The 24-year-old Sacramento native places high value on emotional rawness, and he delivered his wordy verses in an anguished shriek full of raspy, scratchy textures. John Lennon’s emotional directness seems a prime model, but Curry is so totally unmodulated that you feel you’ve been accosted rather than contacted.

“All Over Me,” the first song on his debut album, “It’s Only Time,” came off best at the Roxy. Slightly reminiscent of neo-blues artiste Chris Whitley, it was one of the few songs in the set that was given some room to breathe. Most of Curry’s melodies tend to ramble, and his live band turned nearly everything into generic club-rock.

With his leather jacket, tank-top and square jaw, Curry looked like a jeans-commercial concept of the tough-but-sensitive post-punk hunk, and his stage manner was both uncomfortably nervous and indulgently loose.

It’s nice to see someone with a different idea, but Curry needs to apply some intelligence and design to his howls of anguish. Until then, think of him as the Michael Bolton of underground folk.