POP MUSIC REVIEW : Traffic: Good Singin’, Good Playin’, Good Show

There was no great sense of occasion, no buzz of anticipation as the reunited Traffic arrived at the Pond of Anaheim on Tuesday.

There was no great thematic subtext to lend fresh meaning to songs from more than 20 years ago: Traffic was always more about jams and melodies than lyrical ideas. There wasn’t any essential new material to play, the revived band’s “Far From Home” album having a lot more in common with the tired ramblings of co-leader Steve Winwood’s last two solo releases than the adventurous spark of Traffic’s prime years in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s.

There wasn’t even a close-to-capacity crowd, which perhaps was inevitable for a classic-rock band arriving a few days after the Eagles had finished sucking something on the order of $8 million to $9 million in concert grosses out of the Southern California market.

But the youthful-looking Winwood, his worn and craggy old sidekick Jim Capaldi and their four supporting recruits managed to make a convincing case in favor of Traffic’s rekindled existence. Their collective argument was simple and straightforward: good singin’, good playin’, good energy, good songs.

The audience didn’t begin to stand and roar with approval until halfway through the two-hour show, when “Empty Pages” launched a closing string of some of the band’s best-loved nuggets. But the vital signs were strong from the opening numbers: “Pearly Queen” and “Medicated Goo,” two ‘60s-vintage songs that found Traffic playing it both bluesy and funky, showing a sharp group cohesion, but also enough limberness to free the show from the dull neatness of the “Far From Home” album.

The new album was acknowledged but not belabored. Early on, Traffic played three of its stronger songs in succession and kept the momentum going. But a stretch of languid numbers slowed the middle going of a show that bypassed two zestful gems of psychedelic pop, “Coloured Rain” and “Heaven Is in Your Mind.”

Otherwise, Traffic scored on the strength of a fine catalogue and excellent all-around musicianship. Winwood may not be “pound for pound the best musician on the planet,” which is how Capaldi introduced him, but it’s hard to think of a rock musician who can surpass his combined abilities as a singer, a guitarist and a piano and organ player. Each facet was given its due, culminating in a truly explosive “Dear Mr. Fantasy,” in which Winwood’s probing, cutting guitar lines and impassioned singing set a standard for middle-aged rockers trying to recapture a spark.

Like the Allman Brothers Band in its strong ‘90s stage comeback, Traffic was worth hearing again even without new material that could match its most glorious past. It may have entered the show with two strikes against it, but, in the end, even a skeptic had to agree that a line from the show-closing refrain of “Gimme Some Lovin’ ” could sum up the live aspect of Traffic’s reunion: so glad you made it.

* Traffic plays tonight through Saturday at the Universal Amphitheatre, Universal City, (818) 980-9421, 8:15 p.m. ($27.50-$62.50); Sunday at the Santa Barbara County Bowl, (805) 568-2695, 7 p.m. ($25-$32.50), and next Thursday at the Glen Helen Blockbuster Pavilion, Devore, (909) 886-8742, 8 p.m. ($23.50 - $26.50).