Pop Music Reviews : Troubadour Presents a Mixed Bill

Thursday night’s bill at the Troubadour offered a pair of contrasting approaches to the art of the heavy groove. Chicago’s Stabbing Westward relied on a mix of pounding percussion and keyboard-generated techno-rhythms to power its material, while Palm Desert’s Kyuss produced a more fluid, bottom-heavy, guitar-driven onslaught.

With psychedelic lava lights bubbling away behind them, the four members of Kyuss launched into a crowd-pleasing run of monstrous bass lines and opiated guitar licks. Several songs opened up into heady jam sessions, with guitarist Josh Homme and bassist Scott Reeder playing craftily enough to avoid self-indulgence. John Garcia’s full-throated vocals gave the roiling sound a point of focus.

The band’s ability to drift into chaos and then snap back into sync created some very compelling musical moments. In a trio of encore tunes, the band was at its best, leaping suddenly from gentle lilts to thundering sonic mudslides. Kyuss’ heavy grooves are a weighty pleasure.

Stabbing Westward showed more promise than mastery during its set. The quintet’s music combines the earnest bombast of the Cult with some of the noisy textures of Nine Inch Nails, but at times the band seemed unable to present the music sharply enough to be effective. But when the players locked together on the looser groove of a song like “ACF,” the results were powerful and impressive.