POP MUSIC REVIEW : Consolidated Cultivates Back Talk at Roxy

With the San Francisco trio Consolidated--the Marxist, post-punk-hip-hop, militant vegetarian answer to Rush Limbaugh--topping a bill that also featured political instruction from England’s New Fast Automatic Daffodils and Philadelphia rap group the Goats, Monday’s show at the Roxy was one doozy of a didact-orama.

Consolidated may be the only pop music act that opens the floor for discussion. At the Roxy the topics raised by fans included the ticket price ($18, as opposed to the standard $10 or less at Consolidated shows) and frontman Adam Sherburne’s employment of “bonehead . . . macho guitar solos.”

But in the band’s music itself, there’s no room for discussion. Songs tend to be made up of leftist diatribes rather than anything that could really be called lyrics, hitting topics ranging from animal rights to sexual oppression, labeling any disagreement as fascism.

The saving grace is in the grooves, where hip-hop, punk and industrial styles make for a frothy musical bombast more compelling than the verbal bombast.

Neither the NewFADS nor the Goats are as overbearing as Consolidated, but they too are ultimately saved by their grooves. The five-piece NewFADS pick things up where Gang of Four was in 1981 or so, though with a less jagged sound conveying generally impressionistic images.

The multiracial Goats combine three articulate rappers making strong cases for diversity and plurality in America over beats provided by a solid four-piece band well-schooled in funk-fusion, rock and R&B; styles. It’s a promising new act, plowing ground between the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy and Arrested Development.